Treatment of the aneurysmal bone cyst by percutaneous intracystic sclerotherapy using ethanol ninety five percent in children.

INTRODUCTION: Aneurysmal bone cyst (ABC) is a benign intraosseous lesion filled with blood that can determine a blowout distension of the bone. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of sclerotherapy by percutaneous intralesional administration of ethanol 96% for the treatment of this pathology in paediatric patients.

METHOD: The retrospective study includes 17 paediatric patients with ABC who were treated by repeated intracystic injection with ethanol 96%, 1 ml/kg, in our clinic between December 2015 and July 2017. Fluoroscopic guidance was used to inject the cyst with contrast agent. The mean follow-up period was 11 months.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: All cysts are healed or are in the healing process. The mean age was 11 years old. Seven patients needed three repeated injections and ten patients needed two injections until healing. We observed a mean reduction in the size of the lesions, measured on plain X-rays, of 68%. The complications that were observed included the following: dizziness after injection, skin pigmentation at the injection site, local inflammatory reaction, and pain after injection. The current study approves the importance of this minimally invasive treatment with no recurrence after a follow-up of 19 months. The healing rate was 100%. A limitation of this study consists in the small number of patients.

CONCLUSION: Sclerotherapy with ethanol 96% is a useful method for the treatment of ABC. It is a minimally invasive method, with no major complications, which lowers the risks of open surgical intervention and has a good rate of success.