[Curettage of giant cell tumors with temporary implantation of bone cement].

Curettage with simultaneous bone transplantation is followed by a recurrence rate of 20-60%. In a follow-up of own cases up to 36 years after treatment recurrence was roughly 50%. In the last 10 years we changed to on other treatment procedure, namely optical controlled curettage with temporary cementation. To prevent further damage to the preexisting destabilization of the periarticular cortical bone, tumor excision is done through a small bone window, using a cold lighted mirror to achieve complete curettage. The cavity is then filled with bone cement, which is left in place for 3 months. When at that time there are no signs for tumor persistence, the cement is removed and bone reconstruction performed. An analysis of 17 cases treated this way showed a clearly smaller recurrence rate of 6%; this difference was statistically significant when applying the Kaplan-Meier test.