Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found a landmark, 25-year review of cases in which surgeons had to remove the lower portion of the body from the waist down for severe pelvic bone infections shows the therapy can add years and quality of life to survivors.

The rarely performed surgery is called a hemicorporectomy or translumbar amputation, and involves removing the entire body below the waist, including legs, pelvic bone and urinary system.

"It is used as a last resort on patients with potentially fatal illnesses such as certain cancers or complications from ulcers in the pelvic region that cannot otherwise be contained," said Dr. Jeffrey Janis, associate professor of plastic surgery at UT Southwestern and lead author of the study, which appears in the October issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. "We determined that it can be effective and a reasonable consideration in some of these extreme cases."

Hemicorporectomy rarely has been performed because of the very limited indications for the procedure, said senior author Dr. Robert McClelland, professor emeritus of surgery at UT Southwestern.

"An increasing number of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are surviving very severe injuries that frequently lead to permanent paraplegia and are often complicated by severe bedsores and intractable bone infection, which is potential a source of fatal sepsis. Because of this, the frequency of indications for hemicorporectomy may soon increase significantly," Dr. McClelland said.