Background: Superficial leiomyosarcoma is a rare malignant soft tissue tumor arising from smooth muscle cells, accounting for 2-3% of superficial sarcomas, with limited literature available on the subject. It is typically observed in patients aged 50-60 years and affects both men and women equally in the subcutaneous subtype, whereas the cutaneous subtype predominantly affects men.
Objective: This study aims to examine the clinicopathological features and therapeutic outcomes of patients with leiomyosarcoma.
Method: This is a descriptive retrospective study of 26 cases of cutaneous and subcutaneous leiomyosarcomas, with histological confirmation.
Results: We identified 10 (38.5%) subcutaneous leiomyosarcomas and 16 (61.5%) cutaneous leiomyosarcomas. The majority of tumors were located in the lower limbs, accounting for 13 (50%) cases. During follow-up, 6 patients experienced recurrence, and 7 developed metastases, including 2 of the 7 patients who had R0 resection margins. Among these, 3 out of the 6 recurrent cases and 3 out of the 7 metastatic cases were subcutaneous leiomyosarcomas. The average time to recurrence was 6.2 years.
Conclusion: The observed risk of metastases and recurrences, despite clear surgical margins, in both cutaneous and subcutaneous leiomyosarcomas, along with the delayed onset of these events, justifies prolonged patient follow-up. The lungs, bones and liver have been identified as the most common site of metastasis.
Introduction: The DIEP (deep inferior epigastric perforator) flap is the "gold standard" for breast reconstruction after cancer, giving better benefits on the quality of life. The most common complication is the venous congestion, because of the dominance of superficial venous outflow while the flap is drained by the deep epigastric vein. Pregnancy, by its physiological and vascular modifications, can reduce the risk of the venous congestion. Few studies explored the impact of pregnancy on the DIEP vascularization.
Material and methods: We studied the preoperative CT-scans of 104 patients who benefited reconstruction surgery by DIEP from January 2011 until March 2022. The patients were separated into 5 groups according to number of pregnancies. For each CT-scan, a concomitant vein of deep epigastric artery diameter/SIEV diameter ratio was performed on each side, to assess the relation between pregnancy and the reduction of venous complications.
Results: The results showed an increase of this ratio with the number of pregnancies. Patients with no pregnancy (G0) have the highest complication rate, with 41.7% of venous congestion case. On the other hand, in the group of four pregnancies or more (G4), the complication rate was significantly lower, at 10%, and none venous congestion was observed. These results suggest the beneficial effects of pregnancy on vascularization and especially on venous drainage in the DIEP flap.
Conclusion: This study highlights the benefit effect of the number of pregnancies on the DIEP vascularization, especially for the reduction of the venous congestion risk. The ratio DIEV/SIEV may be a useful help to predict the risk of venous complications in nullparous patients. These results open to new studies to deepen the understanding of the physiological effects of the pregnancy on the breast reconstruction surgery.
Autologous breast reconstruction, especially using the deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEP) flap, is increasingly seen as a reliable, safe, and long-term alternative to implant-based reconstruction. Despite the recognized advantages of the DIEP flap for breast reconstruction, successful realization demands excellent anatomical knowledge, a thorough understanding of autologous breast reconstruction concepts and advanced microsurgical skills. Given that the porcine model is widely employed in microsurgical training, our study aims to assess this model using validated outcomes, with the objective of evaluating the enhancement in a surgeon's learning curve following training with this model. Forty DIEP flaps were harvested on 20 swines by a single surgeon in "Pius Branzeu Center" (Timisoara, RO) and "Drazan Institute" (University of veterinary of Brno, CZ) laboratories for microsurgical training in 6months (January 2015-June 2015). Then we analyzed data from 40 DIEP flaps harvested by the same surgeon on first 20 consecutive patients undergoing DIEP flap breast reconstruction. Perforator dissection time, surgeon-determined dissection difficulty score (DDS) and venous congestion rate were collected for each flap in porcine model and in patients, then compared and analyzed. The mean of DDS score analysis in first and second swines group dissection resulted as statistically significant (P-value 0.0001), while it was not statistically significant between those analyzed in the second group of swines dissected and patients (P-value 0.8037). Reduction in perforator dissection time between the two swines' groups and in venous congestion rates from the first swines groups to the second to the human group resulted statistically significant too (P-value respectively 0.0001 and 0.0079). The porcine model has been used for a long time together with other animal models for microsurgical training. Our study confirms and objective by validated scores that it is a valid and reliable model, comparable to the human one and which mimics the dissection of human perforating vessels.