Forequarter amputation (upper limb and shoulder girdle) in a synovial sarcoma case–case report

We are often confronted with severe cases–patients with very aggressive tumours that suppose a complex and in the same time radical approach–in our medical practice. The correct approach and management of such cases ensure both the surgical success and the patient survival. In this paper, we present the case of a young woman, who has been admitted in our clinic with a giant, irradiated tumour involving left axilla, shoulder and scapula. Due to the vast size of the tumour and to the fact that surgical biopsy revealed a poorly differentiated sarcoma; other clinics considered that the case above belongs to surgical therapy. After the clinical examination, blood tests and diagnostic imaging, which allowed the correct evaluation of the case–tumour sizes and neighbouring tissue reports–we decided to perform tumour radical excision, respectively forequarter amputation, when the patient presented a satisfactory metabolic status. The presented case supports the idea that radical excision which might involve even mutilating amputations for extensive cancers can give patients a chance, even in desperate cases.