Abstract

Introduction: Malignant diseases of childhood represent one of the most difficult problems of modern medicine and are the second leading cause of death in children under 15 years of age. Bone sarcomas are extremely rare diseases and comprise an average of 6% of all malignant diseases in children. Functional outcomes in patients with malignant bone tumors are assessed with different tests, and the most commonly used tests worldwide are the Toronto Extremity Salvage Score and the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society Score. The aim of this work was to compare the results of the two most common and completely different questionnaires for the assessment of physical function in children who survived malignant bone tumors.
Materials and methods: Measurement of functional outcomes was carried out at the Children’s Hospital Zagreb, and 26 patients participated in the research group. Functional assessment of the physical function of patients treated for bone sarcoma was performed using the Toronto Extremity Salvage Score and the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society Score. Patients included in the study were invited to answer all questions from both questionnaires and all questionnaires were filled out correctly.
Results: No statistically significant difference (p<0.05) was found in the assessment of functional outcomes of patients treated for bone sarcomas using two completely different bone sarcoma questionnaires. The largest number of subjects included in the study had an excellent functional outcome according to the Toronto Extremity Salvage Score of 65.38% of patients, while according to the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society Score this result was 57.69%.
Conclusion: We can conclude that despite certain differences, both questionnaires show a similar assessment of the results, which indicates their mutual importance.

Keywords:Malignant bone tumors; Toronto Extremity Salvage Score; Musculoskeletal Tumor Society Score