Distal humeral giant cell tumour–Is it still uncommon or just merely underreported

Introduction: Giant cell tumour (GCT) is a common benign bone tumour. Common sites of occurrence in decreasing order of frequency are distal femur, proximal tibia, distal radius. Less frequent sites include distal humerus, pelvis and sacrum. Aims and Objectives: The aim was to highlight the increasing incidence of common GCT's in uncommon sites such as distal humerus Materials and Methods: We present our series of eight cases (M:F::2:6) of distal humeral GCT between 2008-2017. The diagnosis was confirmed by trucut biopsy and histopathological examination of the resected specimen was also done to confirm the pre-operative diagnosis. All patients underwent wide local resection and reconstruction using custom mega prosthesis performed by our orthopaedic surgical team. Results: There was no evidence of malignant change in any of our patients. All 8 patients were well with good functional outcome with no evidence of tumour recurrence at the latest follow-up. Conclusion: Distal humeral GCT is not as uncommon as once thought. The incidence is increasing due to better and prompt health care access and reporting by medical professionals. A high degree of clinical suspicion, good diagnostic techniques and multimodal team approach towards treatment has a positive effect on clinical outcomes for such complex pathologies.