Preoperative diagnosis and surgical treatment for giant retroperitoneal liposarcoma: A case report

The purpose of this article is to present the diagnostic and surgical approach for a giant retroperitoneal sarcoma and to highlight the difficulty of a precise preoperative diagnosis and the extention of surgical resection.

A 63-year-old female patient was admitted at our department with light diffuse abdominal pain, fever and gradual increase of abdominal girth. A CT scan showed a giant fatty tumor occupying left hemiabdomen and indirect findings of renal damage, probably sustained by ureter stretching and urine stasis. At surgical exploration, no cleavage plane was discovered between the mass and the surrounding organs. The severe pielonephritis and the apparent intraoperatively involvement of surrounding tumour structures lead to an aggressive surgery. An "en-bloc" resection of tumor mass, left colon, spleen, pancreatic tail, left annex, left kidney and adrenal gland was performed. Histology revealed a well differentiated liposarcoma with large areas of high grade of dedifferentiation.

Liposarcoma is an histologic subtype of soft tissue sarcoma and the most common type of sarcoma arising in retroperitoneum. It is difficult to make an accurate preoperative diagnosis through a percutaneous biopsy. Although it is required to obtain negative resection margins, literature shows that surgical radicality is not a primary endpoint if noble structures are strictly close. In some cases surgery must be more aggressive because of the apparent organ involvement or damage.

This is a rare case of a giant liposarcoma involging many organs. Surgery should be tailored according to intraoperative findings and organ damage.