Our supramicrosurgical experience of lymphaticovenular anastomosis in lymphoedema patients to prevent cellulitis.
OBJECTIVE Aim of this paper is to present our reduction of the frequency of cellulitis before and after supramicrosurgical lymphaticovenular anastomosis (s LVA) in lymphoedema patients, and discuss the possibility to perform this technique outside Japan. PATIENTS AND METHODS 37 patients affected by lymphoedema were enrolled. All patients received preoperative indocyanine green lymphography. Under local anaesthesia s LVA was performed on all patients. All patients were followed for 1 year. Lymphoedema was staged using the lymphoedema staging classification recommended by the International Society of Lymphology. Cellulitis rate was recorded for all patients the year before and after the s LVA. A t test was used to evaluate differences in the frequency of cellulitis the year before surgery and the year following surgery. RESULTS Cellulitis incidence decreased in all patients, with a mean 1.7 cases the year before s LVA and 0.1 the year after s LVA. A significant difference between preoperative and postoperative cellulitis rate was found (p 0.0012) CONCLUSIONS This study reports our s LVA case series of lymphoedema patients. With the proper learning curve, s LVA may be reproduced and lymphoedema patients may gain a better quality of life and a reduced cellulitis rate.
European review for medical and pharmacological sciences