[Surgical therapy of soft tissue sarcoma. I. General principles and resections of the trunk]

Resection, preferably wide resection is the primary treatment modality for localized (primary or locally recurrent) soft tissue sarcomas. Sarcomas of the chest or abdominal wall usually do not present great difficulty in their resection. When a mesh is used in the abdominal wall care should be exercised that there will be no direct contact between bowel loops and the mesh by using tissue interposition since otherwise the rate of bowel fistulization due to erosion by the mesh is considerable. Although the average rate of resectability in published reports in the United States for retroperitoneal sarcomas is 53%, with the incisions and techniques described below this rate is 95%.