An Orthopedic Specialist Can Treat Your Bone Tumor

An orthopedic specialist can treat bone tumors by operating to remove them, and then using a bone graft to fill the hole left behind.

Bone tumors are relatively rare, but they do happen. When they do arise, they are usually discovered after a fracture suffered from a relatively minor impact, or one that would not normally result in a break. If a friendly punch on the arm causes a fracture, then a tumor may be present.

Most bone tumors are found on longer bones, such as legs or arms. Accordingly, a patient may go to the emergency room after breaking their arm in an unlikely scenario. The root cause typically reveals itself after looking at x-rays of the broken bone.

The good news is that not all tumors are cancerous, but even a benign (non-cancerous) tumor has to be removed and the bone has to be strengthened again.

When removing a tumor, most of the time an orthopedic specialist will operate on the patient to remove the tumor and prevent it from spreading and destroying the tissue further. While the patient is under general anesthesia, the orthopedic specialist will make a surgical incision in the area of the tumor and then scrape it out. Once it has been removed, the orthopedic specialist will fill the hole with a bone graft, which will either come from bone fragments located elsewhere on the patient or from a donor.

Whether the bone comes from the patient or a donor, the graft will take time. It sometimes takes years to grow and bond to the surrounding tissue, much in the same way that a broken bone heals by "knitting" itself back together.

There are no clear answers why some people get benign bone tumors and others are unaffected by this rare condition. Many people can live for years with a tumor, completely unaware of it other than occasionally noticing mild pain in the affected area.

An orthopedic specialist will order follow up care and treatment for patients who have had a graft, including x-rays and MRIs to ensure the bone graft is filling in and monitoring stability.

In addition to the bone tumor there was also in many cases a bone break which caused the initial discovery in the first place. Due to this, in order to let the injured area heal properly usually patients have to wear some type of protective cast as well.

Periodically, throughout the first year a patient will have some follow up visits with their orthopedic specialist who will continue to monitor the area to ensure the bone graft is a success.

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