Desmoid tumour involving the abdominal rectus muscle: report of a case

Abstract

The desmoid tumour (DT) is a quite rare soft tissues neoplasm that lacks metastatic potential. Though it is characterized by a local infiltrating growth that involves frequent relapses after surgical excision. The presented case report refers to a young female in her childbearing age, who underwent the radical excision of a large DT infiltrating the left rectus muscle of the abdomen. The only radical treatment of this tumour is still the surgical resection carried out far from the tumour borders into the healthy tissues. Nevertheless, when these tumours arise in the abdominal wall, their resection causes wide muscle-fascial defects involving the whole thickness wall and determining serious reconstructive problems. These problems are connected to the use of wide prosthesis that are exposed both to the possible development of visceral adhesions and to the abdominal wall rigidity due to the inclusion in the fibrosis of high quantities of totally non-absorbable material. These remarks induced to employ a new composite prosthesis presenting the double advantage of having a non-adherent visceral surface and part of its network made of absorbable material. Its application in filling the wide abdominal muscle-fascial gap gave very satisfying mechanical and esthetical results.