An overview of heel Marjolin's ulcers in the Orthopedic Department of Urmia University of Medical Sciences.

Marjolin's ulcer is defined as a malignant, ulcerating neoplasm occurring in cicatricial tissues. The cancer is usually a well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. Wide resection is complicated with a recurrence rate of 20% to 50% and a metastasis rate of 54%. Therefore, we chose amputation as the modality of treatment for heel Marjolin's ulcers in Urmia and presented their results in this study.During the last 10 years in Urmia, nineteen cases of heel Marjolin's ulcers has been detected. About 47% were due to childhood burn. Malignancy was mainly squamous cell carcinoma. The mean latent period of malignant transformation was 11 years. All cases were treated with amputation, without any recurrence or metastasis in an average four-year follow-up period.The squamous cell carcinoma of Marjolin's ulcer has the worst prognosis in comparison with other squamous cell carcinomas and it requires an aggressive treatment.