Surgery for retroperitoneal sarcoma requiring major vascular resection and reconstruction

Retroperitoneal sarcomas are characterized by a lack of early symptoms; the inevitable delay in diagnosis results in large sizes at presentation. The current standard of care for these tumours is complete oncological resection with microscopically negative margins. In a subset of these tumours, major vessels such as the inferior vena cava or aorta are involved and resection of these major vessels becomes necessary for complete oncological clearance. This paper describes a series of these tumours and demonstrates the feasibility of radical surgery and resection of major vessels with low morbidity.