Amputation for soft-tissue sarcoma

Soft-tissue sarcomas are a group of rare malignant tumours, many of which arise in the limbs. Most are treated with a combination of wide local excision and radiotherapy, but a small number--including proximal, large, high-grade, or recurrent tumours, or those involving major neurovascular structures--necessitate major amputation including forequarter or hindquarter amputation. These uncommon operations should remain in the surgical armamentarium for carefully selected patients. Those being considered for amputation should be referred to a tertiary sarcoma unit for examination of all other options, such as limb-salvage surgery, tumour downstaging with chemotherapy or radiotherapy (perhaps with subsequent limb-salvage surgery), or novel techniques such as isolated limb perfusion. Only after careful assessment should amputation be carried out. Outcomes after major amputation are highly variable, but such procedures can confer useful palliation to patients with distressing symptoms (pain, bleeding, fungation), long-term disease-free survival with reasonable function in carefully selected patients, and cure in some.