Reduced Blood Loss With Use of Canady Hybrid Plasma Scalpel Compared With Bovie Electrocautery in the Resection of Soft-Tissue Sarcomas

Connor J. Wakefield, BS, Chris Culvern, MS, Matthew W. Colman, MD, Jerome Canady, MD, Steven Gitelis, MD, Alan T. Blank, MD, MS

As medicine continues to seek increasingly improved outcomes, many fields have developed novel and innovative treatments. The field of orthopedic oncology is no exception to this effort and as a result has seen not able changes in guidelines and research discoveries within the past 10 years, particularly in the treatment of soft tissue tumors. Improvements in multidisciplinary care at large institutions over the years have paved the way for improved surgical treatment options that aim to conserve limb function through an improved understanding of the various histologic subtypes of musculoskeletal tumors.

One of the more common malignancies orthopedic oncologists treat is soft-tissue sarcoma (STS). These tumors are a heterogeneous group that represent a small percentage of cancer diagnoses in the United States, with an incidence of 5 per 100 000 people per year.2,3 STS comprises numerous different histopathologic subtypes with varying degrees of aggressiveness. These tumors can vary from low to high grade and are identified most commonly in the extremities and less commonly in axial distribution. For many patients with STS, wide resection techniques offer curative treatment, often with adjuvant or neoadjuvant radiation treatment, depending on initial biopsy findings. With current advances in the surgical resection of STS, improved radiation techniques, and the increasing use of limb salvage surgery, many patients have had improved functional outcomes.