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Axillary lymphadenectomy prepared by fat aspiration versus functional axillary lymphadenectomy: preliminary results of a prospective randomized trial Volume 84, issue 3, Mars 1997

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Authors
Service de chirurgie, Centre Oscar-Lambret, 3, rue Frédéric-Combemale, 59020 Lille, France.

The objective of this study is to compare morbidity between 2 surgical procedures of axillary clearance: functional lymphadenectomy by classical dissection versus axillary dissection prepared by liposuccion (Suzanne’s procedure). Two hundred consecutive patients treated for breast cancer were included in a prospective randomized trial between 1st January, 1995 and 31th January, 1996 (Huriet’s law). The assessment (number of nodes, postoperative stay, drainage duration, rate of seromas, number of complications, evaluation of mobility and sensitive disorders) was done on the first, fifth, tenth and thirty postoperative days. There is no significant difference between the 2 groups. The rate of seromas decreased significantly only for fat patients (8/25 versus 21/34, p < 0.05) and for the patients treated with radical mastectomy (17/37 versus 28/39, p < 0.05). In this preliminary study, liposuccion does not change postoperative effects of axillary clearance, except for fat patients or after total mastectomy. The liposuccion seems to facilitate a better anatomical dissection and a better preservation of the nervous and vascular elements.