Clinical characteristics of patients with large and deep soft tissue sarcomas.

In the present study, the incidence of surgical wound complications in patients with large and deep high-grade soft tissue sarcoma (STS) was investigated. In addition, the disease-specific and event-free survival rates were examined in these patients. In total, 30 adult patients with primary high-grade deep STS with a size of 10 cm or greater were treated in the current study. Of the 30 patients, 16 (53%) developed a total of 19 wound complications. In addition, 10 cases of wound dehiscence, 5 cases of infections, 3 cases of hematomas and 1 case of lymphorrhea were reported, while 3 patients with postoperative infections underwent additional surgical treatment. Longer surgery duration was associated with wound complications (P=0.04). The disease-specific survival was 58.5% at 3 years and 46.1% at 5 years after treatment. Furthermore, local recurrence was detected in 13 patients and distant metastasis was identified in 17 patients as the first relapse. The 3- and 5-year event-free survival rates were 24.4 and 16.3%, respectively. In conclusion, patients with large and high-grade, deep STSs presented a high complication rate; therefore, careful wound care is required in these patients. Furthermore, it should be also taken into account that these patients have a greater risk of tumor-associated events and mortality.