Treatment of bone and soft tissue sarcomas of the hand and wrist

We studied 13 consecutive patients with bone and soft tissue sarcomas of the hand and wrist. Chondrosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, synovial sarcoma and epithelioid sarcoma were the most frequent histological diagnoses. Limb-sparing surgery was performed in ten patients but eventually three patients required an amputation. Surgical margins were wide in nine patients and marginal in four. Adjuvant therapy for nine patients consisted of chemotherapy in five and chemotherapy with radiation in four. Local recurrence occurred in two patients with epithelioid sarcoma. There was no significant relationship between surgical margin and local recurrence. Distant metastasis occurred in four patients. The 5-year survival rate was 66%. The mean functional score was 87%. Our study indicates that treatment consisting of resection of these tumours with either a wide margin or a marginal margin followed by adjuvant radiation appeared to be safe and resulted in an acceptable degree of limb function except in the patients with epithelioid sarcoma.