The Variability in Surgical Margin Reporting in Limb Salvage Surgery for Sarcoma

Kevin Hoang; Yubo Gao; Benjamin J Miller

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The Variability in Surgical Margin Reporting in Limb Salvage Surgery for Sarcoma

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

The Variability in Surgical Margin Reporting in Limb Salvage Surgery for Sarcoma

Kevin Hoang, Yubo Gao and Benjamin J Miller

The Iowa orthopaedic journal, Vol.35, pp.181-186

2015

PMCID: PMC4492149

PMID: 26361463

Appears in Diamond Open Access

Files and links (1)

url

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4492149/View

Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Surgical margins are a standard reported measurement in tumor surgery that has implications for functional outcome, local control, and overall survival. There is no single accepted classification, and it is unclear what form or margin reporting predominates in the sarcoma literature. We performed a PubMed literature search to identify articles that reported surgical margins and oncologic outcomes in limb salvage surgery for sarcoma from 1980 to 2013. We recorded the margin classification, specialty of the journal, specialty of the author, and location of the authors' institution. We found that 159/448 (35%) of articles included in the study did not report surgical margins. Of the 289 papers that did include data on margins, 160 (55%) of articles used Enneking's classification. There has been an increase over time in the proportion of articles reporting surgical margins by the residual tumor (R) classification and the proportion of articles reporting margins dichotomously as "positive" or "negative." We did not find a common method for reporting margins in the limb salvage sarcoma literature. Of most concern was over 1/3 of clinical reports of oncologic outcomes did not include margin status, which substantially compromises any conclusions that readers may infer about treatment success, local recurrence, or survival. We believe there should be renewed efforts to encourage use of a common surgical margin reporting system that is simple, reproducible, and prognostic.

Limb Salvage - methods

Prognosis

Risk Assessment

Humans

Male

Bone Neoplasms - surgery

Limb Salvage - adverse effects

Sarcoma - pathology

Bone Neoplasms - pathology

Neoplasm Recurrence, Local - surgery

Neoplasm Recurrence, Local - pathology

Soft Tissue Neoplasms - surgery

Sarcoma - surgery

Soft Tissue Neoplasms - pathology

Female

Research Report - trends

Needs Assessment

Details

Title: Subtitle: The Variability in Surgical Margin Reporting in Limb Salvage Surgery for Sarcoma
Creators: Kevin Hoang - The University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine
Yubo Gao - The University of Iowa Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation
Benjamin J Miller - The University of Iowa Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: The Iowa orthopaedic journal, Vol.35, pp.181-186
Publisher: Dept. of Orthopaedics, The University of Iowa; United States
PMID: 26361463
PMCID: PMC4492149
ISSN: 1541-5457
eISSN: 1555-1377
Language: English
Date published: 2015
Academic Unit: Orthopedics and Rehabilitation; Internal Medicine
Record Identifier: 9984040539902771

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