INTRODUCTION: Diagnosis of the hand's soft-tissue tumors is often difficult because of the different anatomic structures present in this region and yet clinicians must be able to distinguish typical benign entities from life-threatening or limb-threatening malignant diseases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: At the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Palermo, 629 patients with hand tumors were studied. Treatment was surgical for all of them; also radiotherapy and chemotherapy were necessary based on the histological diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our retrospective study with a literature review aims to present the most commonly observed soft-tissue hand lesions, analyzing their causes, their objective and instrumental evaluation, and their treatments.
INTRODUCTION: Diagnosis of the hand's soft-tissue tumors is often difficult because of the different anatomic structures present in this region and yet clinicians must be able to distinguish typical benign entities from life-threatening or limb-threatening malignant diseases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: At the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Palermo, 629 patients with hand tumors were studied. Treatment was surgical for all of them; also radiotherapy and chemotherapy were necessary based on the histological diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our retrospective study with a literature review aims to present the most commonly observed soft-tissue hand lesions, analyzing their causes, their objective and instrumental evaluation, and their treatments.