Pelvic stabilisation of a large chordoma of the sacrum. Description of a case

Chordoma is a primary malignant bone tumour which derives form residue of the notochord. It constitutes 1.4% of all primary bone tumours, and in approximately half the cases it is localised in the sacrum. It is characterised by slow growth, but also by high local invasiveness, local recurrence and pulmonary metastasis. The literature reports many cases of chordoma of the sacrum, most of which do not extend beyond the second sacral metamere. The case presented here is a large chordoma which extended proximally as far as the 1st sacral metamere bilaterally, so that subtotal resection of the sacrum was required. There is very little data in the literature on the stability of the pelvis after such ample removal. Considering the young age of the patient we decided to stabilise the pelvis with Luque segmental instrumentation.