The reduction of seroma risk by axillary drainage in these trials was achieved at the expense of a prolonged hospital stay and significant patient discomfort caused by the drain. During the past 4 decades at least 50 RCT's have been performed on various interventions to reduce axillary drainage with the aim of abandoning the axillary drain from clinical practice. The interventions ranged from surgical dead space reduction, use of various surgical equipment, shoulder immobilization, compression dressing, to the application of somatostatin analogons and other medication. Due to the overall limited success of these trials axillary drainage is still standard of care after ALND.