ABSTRACT
Adequate skin or soft-tissue coverage arises as a surgical issue most commonly as a result of a poorly placed surgical biopsy incision. Rarely does a pediatric sarcoma present with extensive dermal involvement, although extensive, deep, intramuscular tumor involvement also affects skin viability. Problems arise most commonly for the surgeon at time of resection, when an inexperienced surgeon has executed the initial sarcoma biopsy. Documented biopsy complications have actually increased over the last 20 years, despite published series that recognize problems with biopsies performed by inexperienced surgeons.9 In addition to biopsy complications, patients suffering a local recurrence of their tumors typically have soft-tissue or skin-coverage problems contributing to their likelihood for subsequent amputation.
