Last-resort lower-body amputation effective in extreme cases of bone infection

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Dr. Jeffrey Janis, UT Southwestern Medical Center

DALLAS – Nov. 17, 2009 – A landmark, 25-year review of cases in which surgeons had to remove the lower portion of the body from the waist down for severe pelvic bone infections shows the therapy can add years and quality of life to survivors, say researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

The rarely performed surgery is called a hemicorporectomy or translumbar amputation, and involves removing the entire body below the waist, including legs, pelvic bone and urinary system.

“It is used as a last resort on patients with potentially fatal illnesses such as certain cancers or complications from ulcers in the pelvic region that cannot otherwise be contained,” said Dr. Jeffrey Janis, associate professor of plastic surgery at UT Southwestern and lead author of the study, which appears in the October issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. “We determined that it can be effective and a reasonable consideration in some of these extreme cases.”

Hemicorporectomy rarely has been performed because of the very limited indications for the procedure, said senior author Dr. Robert McClelland, professor emeritus of surgery at UT Southwestern.

“An increasing number of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are surviving very severe injuries that frequently lead to permanent paraplegia and are often complicated by severe bedsores and intractable bone infection, which is potential a source of fatal sepsis. Because of this, the frequency of indications for hemicorporectomy may soon increase significantly,” Dr. McClelland said.

Only 57 cases of translumbar amputations had been recorded in medical literature worldwide, although the researchers suspect more have occurred since the initial referencing in 1960. The authors added to their review nine UT Southwestern patients who had received the procedure as a result of terminal pelvic osteomyelitis, a type of bone infection.

About a third of the 66 patients survived at least nine years after having a hemicorporectomy. Of those who had the procedure for the bone infection, more than half survived at least nine years. Of the nine terminal pelvic osteomyelitis-driven patients treated at UT Southwestern, four remained alive after 25 years and the average survival was 11 years.

“Though it is impossible to know how the survival rate would compare had these patients not undergone the amputation, given the severe disease involved, it is reasonable to assume they survived longer than they would have without surgery. Most importantly, our survivors reported that they were satisfied with their decision to have the procedure,” said Dr. Janis, who is also chief of plastic surgery and wound care for Parkland Health & Hospital System, the primary teaching institution of UT Southwestern.

Other UT Southwestern physicians involved included Dr. Kevin Morrill, co-director of the Spine Center and assistant professor of neurological surgery; Dr. Joshua Lemmon, clinical assistant professor of plastic surgery; and Dr. Jamil Ahmad, chief resident in plastic surgery. Dr. Carlton Barnett, Jr., former assistant professor of surgery at UT Southwestern and currently an associate professor of surgery at Denver Health Medical Center, University of Colorado, also as involved.