Forequarter amputation (upper limb and shoulder girdle) in a synovial sarcoma case--case report.
We are often confronted with severe cases - patients with very aggressive tumours that suppose a complex and in the same time radical approach--in our medical practice. The correct approach and management of such cases ensure both the surgical success and the patient survival. In this paper, we present the case of a young woman, who has been admitted in our clinic with a giant, irradiated tumour involving left axilla, shoulder and scapula. Due to the vast size of the tumour and to the fact that surgical biopsy revealed a poorly differentiated sarcoma; other clinics considered that the case above belongs to surgical therapy. After the clinical examination, blood tests and diagnostic imaging, which allowed the correct evaluation of the case--tumour sizes and neighbouring tissue reports--we decided to perform tumour radical excision, respectively forequarter amputation, when the patient presented a satisfactory metabolic status. The presented case supports the idea that radical excision which might involve even mutilating amputations for extensive cancers can give patients a chance, even in desperate cases.
Plastic and Reconstructive Microsurgery Clinic, Bagdasar Arseni Clinical Emergency Hospital, Bucharest, Romania.
Silviu
S
Marinescu
Carmen
C
Giuglea
Ruxandra
R
Mihai
Anca
A
Oporanu
Simona
S
Manea
Ioan Petre
IP
Florescu
D000328:Adult; D000671:Amputation, Surgical / Q000379:methods*; D001132:Arm; D001706:Biopsy; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D013584:Sarcoma, Synovial / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012785:Shoulder Joint / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*
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