Surgical Treatment of Malignant and Benign Aggressive Tumors in the Shoulder Region

The modality of treatment for malignant or benign aggressive tumors in the shoulder includes radical or wide removal of the lesion, accompanied by chemotherapy or radiotherapy. With the introduction of chemotherapy, advance in surgical techniques, and improvements in radiographic imaging studies, the shoulder resection with reconstruction or replantation is a limb-sparing surgical option to be considered for bony and soft-tissue tumors in and around the shoulder, but amputation is used still if inevitable. We treated 16 tumors in or around the shoulder from June 1986 to August 1991: thirteen shoulder resections, two shoulder disarticulations, and one forequarter nine patients, reconstructed with a free fibular graft in two or with a allograft and myocutaneous flap in two. Chemotherapy or radiotherapy were followed if indicated. Function of the hand after the operations should be nearly normal. Mean rating for functional results was 69% (range 43-97%) by criteria of Enneking et al. During the follow-up of the mean 4 years and 1 month, a distant metastasis occurred in one case, leading to death and a local recurrence was noted in another one, indicating the forequarter amputation. Our experience indicates that shoulder resection with reconstruction or replantation can to be used for limb salvage in selected patient with tumors in or around the shoulder.ope