Inflammatory prognostic scoring systems are risk factors for surgical site infection following wide local excision of soft tissue sarcoma.

Introduction: Limb-sparing surgery with negative margins is possible in most soft tissue sarcoma (STS) resections and focuses on maximising function and minimising morbidity. Various risk factors for surgical site infections (SSIs) have been reported in the literature specific to sarcoma surgery. The aim of this study is to determine whether systemic inflammatory response prognostic scoring systems can predict post-operative SSI in patients undergoing potentially curative resection of STS.

Methods: Patients who had a planned curative resection of a primary STS at a single centre between January 2010 and December 2019 with a minimum follow-up of 6 months were included. Data were extracted on patient and tumour characteristics, and pre-operative blood results were used to calculate inflammatory prognostic scores based on published thresholds and correlated with risk of developing SSI or debridement procedures.

Results: A total of 187 cases were included. There were 60 SSIs. On univariate analysis, there was a statistically significant increased risk of SSI in patients who are diabetic, increasing specimen diameter, American Society of Anaesthesiology (ASA) grade 3, use of endoprosthetic replacement, blood loss greater than 1 L, and junctional tumour location. Modified Glasgow prognostic score, C-reactive protein/albumin ratio and neutrophil-platelet score (NPS) were statistically associated with the risk of SSI. On multivariate analysis, ASA grade 3, junctional tumour location and NPS were independently associated with the risk of developing a SSI.

Conclusion: This study supports the routine use of simple inflammation-based prognostic scores in identifying patients at increased risk of developing infectious complications in patients undergoing potentially curative resection of STS.