Resumen
Musculoskeletal tumors often require surgical treatment, which can result in substantial peri-operative blood loss. Preoperative transarterial embolization (TAE) is used to reduce peri-operative blood loss during the surgery of musculoskeletal tumors but there is no consensus about the actual place of TAE in the musculoskeletal tumor therapeutic algorithm, and there is no firm recommendation about its best technical approach. The purpose of this study was to report our experience in preoperative TAE of musculoskeletal tumors regarding the effectiveness of preoperative TAE in terms of blood loss and functional outcomes. For 31 patients, we found that TAE led to complete (58%) or near-complete (42%) tumor devascularization, allowing bloodless surgery in 71% of patients and moderate transfusion needs for the remaining 29%. A total of 27% of patients had complete improvement of the initial symptoms at the end of the follow-up, 15 (50%) with partially satisfying improvement, 4 (13%) with partially unsatisfying improvement and 3 (10%) with no improvement.