ASO Author Reflections: Improved Perioperative Seroma and Complication Rates Following the Application of a Two-Layer Negative Pressure Wound Therapy System After Inguinal Lymphadenectomy for Metastatic Cutaneous Melanoma

Excerpt

Inguinal lymphadenectomy is the current standard of care in the management of macroscopic nodal disease, but unfortunately postoperative complications are very common, especially seroma. Seroma rates from the published literature are, on average, approximately 50%.1 Multiple studies have investigated interventions designed to either reduce the incidence or reduce the extent of the problem once it has become established. A recent systematic review by the Cochrane Group2 identified a lack of any useful data and concluded that “… there is a need for high-quality randomized controlled trials to guide clinical practice in this under-researched area”. Seromas are important because they affect patients’ quality of life postoperatively, invariably cause patients to return repeatedly to the clinic over a period of many weeks for aspirations, and subsequent complications such as infection are common as a result. …