The purpose of this study was to report the effectiveness of preoperative transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) of musculoskeletal tumors in terms of blood loss and functional outcomes. Patients who underwent preoperative TAE of hypervascular musculoskeletal tumors between January 2018 and December 2021 were retrospectively included. The patients’ characteristics, TAE procedure details, degree of post-TAE devascularization, surgical outcomes in terms of red blood cell transfusion and functional results were collected. The degree of devascularization was compared between patients who had peri-operative transfusion and those who did not. Thirty-one patients were included. The 31 TAE procedures led to complete (58%) or near-complete (42%) tumor devascularization. Twenty-two patients (71%) had no blood transfusion during surgery. Nine patients (29%) had a blood transfusion, with a median number of red blood cell packs of three (q1, 2; q3, 4; range: 1–4). Eight patients (27%) had complete improvement of the initial musculoskeletal symptoms at the end of the follow-up, 15 (50%) had partially satisfying improvement, 4 (13%) had partially unsatisfying improvement and 3 (10%) had no improvement. Our study suggests that preoperative TAE of hypervascular musculoskeletal tumors allowed for bloodless surgery in 71% of patients and minimal transfusion needs for the remaining 29%.

Dedicated catheters for hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy were removed from the market. The purpose of this study was to assess the results of a novel approach to overcome the shortage of dedicated catheters for hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy in the treatment of colorectal cancer liver metastases. We retrospectively included patients who underwent a percutaneous placement of a hepatic intra-arterial port catheter in a single tertiary center from February 2021 to June 2022. We examined the patient baseline characteristics, technical features of the modified procedures, technical success rates, complications and oncological outcomes. Fourteen patients (median age: 60 years; q1 = 54; q3 = 70; range: 53–81 years) underwent 15 modified procedures. The main modification of our placement technique consisted of the use of an indwelling 5-Fr Vertebral catheter, on the tip of which we created a two-sided additional lateral hole. The catheter was connected to a pediatric port. The primary success rate was 100%, and the secondary success rate was 93.3%. There were two late major complications, graded IIIa according to the Clavien–Dindo classification. The median liver progression free survival was 6.1 months (q1 = 2.5; q3 = 7.2; range: 1.3–11.6). Our experience suggests that the derived utilization of the devices used routinely in interventional radiology provides an effective solution that can compensate for the shortage of dedicated devices.