Soft tissue sarcoma of the anterior abdominal wall: review of reconstruction techniques

Tumors of the abdominal wall excised with inadequately wide margins have a high local recurrence rate. The surgeon's fear of iatrogenic defects of the abdominal wall should not outweigh the need for wide resection margins to prevent tumor recurrence when excising primary and secondary malignancies. Appropriate monobloc excision of abdominal wall malignancies can be satisfactorily accomplished through a wide array of modalities. The authors describe successful abdominal wall reconstruction with the use of polypropylene mesh after excision of a recurrent soft tissue sarcoma. They review various methods of abdominal wall reconstruction to assist the surgeon in choosing the appropriate reconstruction technique.