Global prevalence and risk of local recurrence following cryosurgery of giant cell tumour of bone: A meta-analysis

The challenge in the surgical treatment of giant cell tumours of bone is the relatively high recurrence rate after curettage alone. The use of a local adjuvant following curettage, on the other hand, has lowered the rate of recurrence. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the prevalence and risk of local recurrence of giant cell tumours of the bone after cryosurgery and the subsequent complications. Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Google Scholar were searched to identify articles published until 13 October 2021. A random-effects model was used to examine the pooled prevalence and risk ratio (RR) of local recurrence in patients with giant cell tumours after cryosurgery with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). This study was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020211620). A total of 1376 articles were identified, of which 38 studies (n = 1373, 46.2% male) were included in the meta-analysis. Following cryosurgery, the pooled prevalence of local recurrence in giant cell tumours was estimated as 13.5% [95% CI: 9.3–17.8, I2 = 63%], where European subjects exhibited the highest prevalence (24.2%). Compared to other local adjuvants. The RR of local recurrence following cryosurgery was 0.85 (95% CI: 0.63–1.17, I2 = 15%), which was not statistically significant compared to other local adjuvants. We found 3.9% fracture, 4.0% infection, 2.1% nerve injury, and 1.5% skin necrosis as the common complications. Based on the sensitivity analyses, this study is robust and reliable. This meta-analysis estimated a low prevalence of local recurrence of giant cell tumours with low complications following cryosurgery. Thus, it can be one of the adjuvant options for treating giant cell tumours.