Surgical strategy for presacral tumors: analysis of 33 cases

Presacral tumors are highly infrequent tumors located in the space known as presacral or retrorectal space. Although there have been substantial improvements in the prognosis of patients with malignant presacral tumors, the development of newer surgical strategy is likely to further improve the oncologic outcomes of malignant presacral tumors. The aim of this article was to report our experience in 33 cases, and to review the surgical strategy, pathological features and the prevention of complications from our experience.

A retrospective analysis was conducted on 33 cases (20 male and 13 female) with presacral tumors surgically treated in our hospital between January 1998 and April 2009. The surgical approaches included trans-abdominal in 10 cases (30%), trans-sacral in 18 cases (55%) and combined abdominal-sacral in 5 cases (15%). All patients got followed up (14 - 123 months, mean of 45.1 months). At last, the general information, clinical symptoms, histodiagnosis, surgical types and postoperative complications of all cases in our series were assessed.

Ages of 33 patients ranged from 18 to 71 years, with an average of 48.5 years.

6 epidermoid cysts, 5 teratomas, 3 leiomyomas, 9 neurofibromas, 5 neurilemmomas, 1 enterogenous cyst, 1 liposarcoma, 1 leiomyosarcoma, 1 angiosarcoma, and 1 neurofibrosarcoma. All tumors were excised with no perioperative death. A colostomy was taken in one case with angiosarcoma involving the rectum because of the intraoperative injury of the rectum. Blood loss during surgery was 400 - 11 000 ml (mean of 2400 ml). Four (12%) cases had local recurrence during follow-up: 2 because of inadequate drainage after dermoidectomy, both of them were cured by surgical resection and drainage; recurrence occurred in a case of teratoma in 18 months after surgery, cured by a trans-sacral excision; local recurrence and lung metastasis occurred simultaneously in a case of angiosarcoma in 6 months postoperatively and the patient died one month later of respiratory failure.

The main treatment of most presacral tumors is surgical resection. Selection of surgical approach is very important for complete resection of the presacral tumors. The location, size and peculiarities of tumors, conditions of the skin and soft tissues and the patients' somatotype are all determinative factors. Multidisciplinary cooperation is also very necessary.