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.