Prevention of Postoperative Complications by Negative Pressure Therapy After Complex Breast Cancer Surgery

Plain-language summary

There is little scientific data concerning the use of negative pressure therapy after immediate breast reconstruction. That strategy of treatment-reconstruction has expanded increasingly since the last years. The current literature reports only 3 studies on the use of preventive negative pressure therapy in oncologic breast surgery. Moreover, all three are retrospective, case-control studies with serious limitations. The largest published series reports a reduction in the overall complication rate from 15.9% to 8.5%, and a significant reduction in several criteria: infection, scar dehiscence and necrosis. However, the study presents significant biases, with non-comparable populations in terms of comorbidities, surgical procedure performed, inclusion periods (and therefore experience in performing oncological surgery). There was also a high probability of under-assessment or postponement of post-operative complications, which is typical of published retrospective surgical studies. The published results therefore strongly encourage further investigation of negative pressure therapy in oncological breast surgery.

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