Giant cell tumors of the tendon sheath of the hand: an 11-year retrospective study.

Purpose: Giant cell tumor of the tendon sheath (GCTTS) is a slowly progressing soft tissue tumor. The present retrospective study recorded and evaluated cases of GCTTS of the hand.

Methods

A cohort of patients suffering from GCTTS of the hand and treated surgically were studied in terms of diagnosis, therapy, recurrence, as well as in terms of functional outcome with the use of the QuickDASH score.

Results

A total of 36 patients (13 men; 23 women) with a mean age of 38.8 years (±standard deviation;SD=8.7) were evaluated. According to Al-Qattan classification 10 cases of type Ia, 11 cases of type Ib, 6 cases of Ic and 9 cases of IIa were found, while the mean tumor diameter was 2.6 cm (SD=1.1). The mean follow up was 21 months (SD=12). The mean QuickDASH Score was 6.3 (SD=6.7). Furthermore, a total of 31 patients (86%) characterized their outcome as satisfactory. Recurrence was observed in 4 patients, while none of them had initially undergone radiotherapy.

Conclusions

This study has shown a direct correlation between the QuickDASH Score results and the objective level of satisfaction in cases of GCTTS treated surgically. The present study cohort had 11.11% recurrence rate during a mean follow-up of 21 months. It is of note that none of these cases had initially undergone radiotherapy. It is of utmost importance to carefully select the patients that meet the criteria for postoperative radiotherapy.