A typical example is in the lower leg in which the extensor muscles are the anterior compartment, the peroneal muscles are the lateral compartment, the gastrosoleus complex is the superficial posterior compartment, and the toe flexors are the deep posterior compartment. The sarcomas, as a rule, tend to respect the boundaries of the fascia early on the disease. Each bone is considered a compartment unto itself. Subcutaneous tumors tend to be confined to the subcutaneous compartment and don't tend to invade the fascia until late in the course of the disease. An intralesional margin is where an open biopsy is done into the tumor.
Gross tumor is left behind.
This recurrence rate may be decreased if adjuvant radiation is used along with the resection. Wide resection is the preferred method of removal of most soft tissue sarcomas. It is excision of the tumor through normal tissue surrounding the pseudocapsule. The normal tissue may be several mm from the tumor or it may be three inches from the tumor. An example of this would be removing the entire quadriceps compartment from the patella from the anterior iliac spine.