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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Plast Surg 2022; 55(01): 097-101
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1740520
Case Series

Vascularized Lymph Node Transfer for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Lower Extremity Lymphedema: A Preliminary Report

Pedro Ciudad
1   Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Burn Surgery, Arzobispo Loayza National Hospital, Lima, Peru
2   Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
,
Maria T. Huayllani
3   Division of Plastic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida, United States
,
Antonio J. Forte 
3   Division of Plastic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida, United States
,
Daniel Boczar
3   Division of Plastic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida, United States
,
Francisco R. Avila
3   Division of Plastic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida, United States
,
Joseph M. Escandón 
4   Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, United States
,
Oscar J. Manrique
4   Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, United States
,
Hung-Chi Chen
2   Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
› Author Affiliations Funding Source This report was supported in part by the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine and the Plastic Surgery Foundation. ©2020 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
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Abstract

Background Posttraumatic lymphedema develops more frequently than expected and reports on its management are scarce in the literature. We aimed to report the clinical outcomes of a case series of posttraumatic lymphedema patients treated with different vascularized lymph node transfers (VLNTs).

Patients and Methods Five patients with secondary posttraumatic lower limb lymphedema treated with VLNT were included in this report. The groin-VLNT (n = 1), supraclavicular-VLNT (n = 2), and gastroepiploic-VLNT (n = 2) were implemented. The average flap area was 69.8 cm2. Patients underwent postoperative complex decompressive therapy for an average of 10.0 months.

Results The average mean circumference reduction rate was 24.4% (range, 10.2–37.6%). Postsurgical reduction in the number of infection episodes per year was observed in all patients. The mean follow-up was 34.2 months.

Conclusions VLNT is a promising surgical treatment for posttraumatic lymphedema patients. In our report, VLNT has demonstrated to reduce the volume and number of infections per year in posttraumatic lymphedema.

Keywords

lymphedema - VLNT - lymph nodes/transplantation

Financial Disclosure and Products

None.




Publication History

Article published online:
28 February 2022

© 2022. Association of Plastic Surgeons of India. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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