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The results of surgical treatment in 40 patients with a soft tissue sarcoma of the thigh were analyzed to determine the influence of the anatomic setting on the effectiveness of the procedure. The anatomic setting, based on functional anatomic compartments, was defined as either intra-or extracompartmental. The lesions were graded for aggressiveness as either high or low. The lesions were staged by biologic aggressiveness, anatomic setting, and metastases. The procedures, whether amputations or local resec-tions, were classified by the relationship of the surgical margin to the pseudocapsule and reactive zone about the lesion as marginal, wide, or radical. Marginal procedures were done four times with two recurrences. Wide margins were achieved 12 times. When done for low grade lesions, there were no recurrences (0/2), but when done for high grade lesions, the recurrence rate was 30% (3/10). Radical margins were obtained 24 times. There was one recurrence after a radical procedure. Recurrence rates did not depend upon whether the procedure was a resection or amputation but upon the margin achieved. The anatomic setting of the lesion was intracompartmental in 13 cases and extracompartmental in 27. Not only were surgically adequate margins achieved more often for intracompartmental lesions (10/13) than for extracompartmental lesions (17/27), but there was a significant difference in the manner required to achieve an adequate margin. Although 9 of the 13 intracompartmental lesions were amenable to nonahlative resection, only 3 of 27 extracompartmental lesions were resectable. The margin required for local control (wide vs. radical) was dictated by the biologic aggressiveness (grade) of the lesion. How the necessary margin was most satisfactorily achieved (resection vs. amputation) was determined by the anatomic setting (intra-vs. extracompartmental).

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