
Malignant tumours of the hand and wrist
Author(s) -
Binu P. Thomas,
Kiran Sasi,
Samuel C. Raj Pallapati,
Anil Mathew,
Sreekanth Raveendran,
Meera Thomas
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
indian journal of plastic surgery/indian journal of plastic surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.299
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1998-376X
pISSN - 0970-0358
DOI - 10.4103/0970-0358.85355
Subject(s) - medicine , wrist , radiation therapy , skin tumours , lesion , presentation (obstetrics) , surgery , radiology , dermatology
Malignant tumours are rare in the hand and wrist. The clinical presentation may be similar to that of a benign lesion and a high index of suspicion is necessary so that such lesions are not missed by the treating surgeon. Out of a total of 657 tumours/tumour-like lesions of the hand and wrist seen in a tertiary referral centre in a 10-year period, a total of 39 tumours were identified as malignant (5.9%) and of which majority had origin from the skin (53.8%). The management of these tumours is primarily surgical. Limb salvage surgery may be applied when appropriate, though eradication of disease should be the primary goal rather than preservation of function. A multimodal approach is necessary for appropriate management including chemotherapy and radiotherapy.