Publications

OBJECTIVE: Closed-incision negative pressure therapy (CINPT) with the Prevena system has been used and clinically evaluated in high-risk groin incisions to reduce the risk of postoperative complications. We performed a cost-effectiveness analysis evaluating CINPT in femoral-popliteal bypass with prosthetic graft.

METHODS: A literature review looking at prospective randomized trials determined the probabilities and outcomes for femoral-popliteal bypass with and without CINPT. Reported utility scores were used to estimate the quality adjusted life years (QALYs) associated with a successful procedure and postoperative complications. Medicare current procedure terminology and diagnosis-related group codes were used to assess the costs for a successful surgery and associated complications. A decision analysis tree was constructed with rollback analysis to highlight the more cost-effective strategy. An incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) analysis was performed with a willingness to pay at $50,000. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed to validate the robustness of the results, and to accommodate for the uncertainty in the literature.

RESULTS: Femoral-popliteal bypass with CINPT is less costly ($40,138 vs $41,774) and more effective (6.14 vs 6.13) compared to without CINPT. This resulted in a negative ICER of -234,764.03, which favored CINPT, indicating a dominant strategy. In one-way sensitivity analysis, surgery without CINPT was more cost-effective if the probability of successful surgery falls below 84.9% or if the cost of CINPT exceeds $3139. Monte Carlo analysis showed a confidence of 99.07% that CINPT is more cost-effective.

CONCLUSIONS: Despite the added device cost of CINPT, it is cost-effective in vascular surgical operations using groin incisions.

OBJECTIVE: To implement and evaluate outcomes from a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary debulking program in the United States.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Interest in and access to surgical treatment for chronic lymphedema (LE) in the United States have increased in recent years, yet there remains little attention on liposuction, or debulking, as an effective treatment option. In some other countries, debulking is a common procedure for the surgical treatment of LE, is covered by insurance, and has demonstrated excellent, reproducible outcomes. In this study we describe our experience implementing a debulking technique from Sweden in the United States.

METHODS: Patients who presented with chronic LE followed a systematic multi-disciplinary work-up. For debulking with power assisted liposuction, the surgical protocol was modeled after that developed by Håkan Brorson. A retrospective review of consecutive patients who underwent debulking at our institution was conducted.

RESULTS: Between December 2017 and January 2020, 39 patients underwent 41 debulking procedures with power assisted liposuction, including 23 upper and 18 lower extremities. Mean patient age was 58 years and 85% of patients had LE secondary to cancer, the majority of which (64%) was breast cancer. Patients experienced excess volume reductions of 116% and 115% in the upper and lower extremities, respectively, at 1 year postoperatively. Overall quality of life (LYMQOL) improved by a mean of 33%. Finally, patients reported a decreased incidence of cellulitis and decreased reliance on conservative therapy modalities postoperatively.

CONCLUSIONS: Debulking with power assisted liposuction is an effective treatment for patients with chronic extremity LE. The operation addresses patient goals and improves quality of life, and additionally reduces extremity volumes, infection rates and reliance on outpatient therapy. A comprehensive, multi-disciplinary debulking program can be successfully implemented in the United States healthcare system.

BACKGROUND: The real-time quantification of lymphatic flow remains elusive. Efforts to provide a metric of direct lymphatic function are not clinically translatable and lack reproducibility. Early reports demonstrate the promise of immediate lymphatic reconstruction (immediate lymphovenous bypass after lymphadenectomy) to reduce the risk of lymphedema development. However, there remains a heightened need to appraise this technique in a clinically translatable large-animal model. The aim of the authors' experiment was to evaluate the role of molecular imaging in the quantification of real-time lymphatic flow after lymphadenectomy, and lymphadenectomy with lymphovenous bypass using novel fluorophores in a swine model.

METHODS: A lymphadenectomy or lymphadenectomy with subsequent lymphovenous bypass was performed in 10 female swine. After subdermal fluorophore injection, near-infrared molecular imaging of blood samples was used to evaluate change in lymphatic flow after lymphadenectomy versus after lymphadenectomy with lymphovenous bypass. Continuous imaging evaluating fluorescence of the superficial epigastric vein in the torso and adjacent skin was performed throughout all experiments. Findings between modalities were correlated.

RESULTS: The near-infrared dye signal in central and peripheral blood samples was often difficult to separate from background and proved challenging for reliable quantification. Venous and skin near-infrared imaging demonstrated a lymphatic clearance rate decrease of 70 percent after lymphadenectomy versus a decrease by only 30 percent after lymphadenectomy with immediate lymphovenous bypass.

CONCLUSIONS: In this article, the authors describe a noninvasive, swine, large-animal model to quantify lymphatic clearance using skin imaging. The authors' findings were consistent with results yielded from real-time imaging of the vein. The authors believe this model may have important implications for eventual direct translation to the clinical setting.

SUMMARY: Vascularized lymph node transplantation is a surgical approach for the treatment of chronic lymphedema. However, there is no clinical standard for flap placement nor vascular anastomoses. The authors propose a novel flowthrough configuration for an omental vascularized lymph node transplant in the popliteal space. To prepare the popliteal space for an omental free flap, the medial popliteal fat pad and medial head of the gastrocnemius muscle were debulked. Venous anastomoses were completed with vein couplers, joining the right gastroepiploic vein to the medial sural venae comitantes and the left gastroepiploic vein to the lesser saphenous vein. Arterial anastomoses were hand sewn, joining the right gastroepiploic artery to the proximal medial sural artery and the left gastroepiploic artery to the distal medial sural artery, to create the flowthrough configuration. A retrospective review of patients who underwent this procedure at a single institution was performed. Six patients with chronic lymphedema of the lower extremity underwent vascularized lymph node transplantation from June of 2019 to November of 2020. Five patients underwent at least 3 months of postoperative surveillance, with no postoperative complications reported. In this technique contribution, the authors describe a novel flowthrough configuration for an omental free flap to the popliteal space. The popliteal space offers an aesthetically favorable recipient location when appropriately prepared. The medial sural vessels are ideal recipient vessels for the flowthrough omental flap.

CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, IV.

Immediate lymphatic reconstruction (ILR) is targeted at preventing breast cancer related lymphedema (BCRL) by anastomosing disrupted arm lymphatic channels to axillary vein tributaries. Inadequate vein length and venous back-bleeding are two technical reasons that lead to ILR procedures being aborted intraoperatively. Recently, our team began routinely harvesting a lower extremity vein graft (LEVG) for all ILR procedures to reduce our abort rate. We describe the surgical approach of an LEVG and evaluate the effects on aborted case rates and intraoperative time. A retrospective review of our institutional lymphatic database was conducted. Two hundred and forty-seven breast cancer patients were taken to the operating room for attempted ILR in the past 5 years. Prior to the use of an LEVG (n = 205), our abort rate was 14%. Since routinely performing an LEVG with ILR (n = 42), we have not aborted a single case. Despite an LEVG requiring one additional anastomosis to connect the vein graft to the native axillary vein tributary, this technique has not changed the intraoperative time for ILR procedures. In this technical contribution, we describe our early experience performing immediate lymphatic reconstruction utilizing a lower extremity vein graft. Implementation of this technique appears to have promising effects on aborted case rates without affecting intraoperative time, and greatly facilitates the lymphovenous anastomosis.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge of detailed lymphatic anatomy in humans is limited, as the small size of lymphatic channels makes it difficult to image. Most current knowledge of the superficial lymphatic system has been obtained from cadaveric dissections.

METHODS: Indocyanine green lymphography was performed preoperatively to map the functional arm lymphatics in breast cancer patients without clinical or objective evidence of lymphedema. A retrospective review was performed to extract demographic, indocyanine green imaging, and surgical data.

RESULTS: Three main functional forearm channels with variable connections to two upper arm pathways were identified. The median forearm channel predominantly courses in the volar forearm (99 percent). The ulnar forearm channel courses in the volar forearm in the majority of patients (66 percent). The radial forearm channel courses in the dorsal forearm in the majority of patients (92 percent). Median (100 percent), radial (91 percent), and ulnar (96 percent) channels almost universally connect to the medial upper arm channel. In contrast, connections to the lateral upper arm channel occur less frequently from the radial (40 percent) and ulnar (31 percent) channels.

CONCLUSIONS: This study details the anatomy of three forearm lymphatic channels and their connections to the upper arm in living adults without lymphatic disease. Knowledge of these pathways and variations is relevant to any individual performing procedures on the upper extremities, as injury to the superficial lymphatic system can predispose patients to the development of lymphedema.

UNLABELLED: Lymphedema is a chronic, debilitating disease that has been described as the largest breast cancer survivorship burden. Debulking surgery has been shown to improve extremity volume, improve patient quality of life, and decrease the incidence of cellulitis in the literature. This procedure is routinely covered in numerous other developed countries, yet it is still inconsistently covered in the United States.

METHODS: Extremity volumes from all patients who underwent debulking surgery of the upper extremity at two institutions between December 2017 and January 2020 with at least 12 months follow-up were included. Procedural costs were calculated using Medicare reimbursement data. Average utility scores were obtained for each health state using a visual analog scale, then converted to quality-adjusted life years. A decision tree was generated, and incremental cost-utility ratios were calculated. Sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate our findings.

RESULTS: Debulking surgery is associated with a higher clinical effectiveness (quality-adjusted life year) of 27.05 compared to conservative management (23.34), with a relative cost reduction of $74,487. Rollback analysis favored debulking surgery as the cost-effective option compared to conservative management. The resulting negative incremental cost-utility ratio of -20,115.07 favored debulking surgery and indicated a dominant strategy.

CONCLUSION: Our study supports the use of debulking surgery for the treatment of chronic lymphedema of the upper extremity.

AIM: Although vascularized lymph node transplantation (VLNT) has gained recognition as an effective treatment option for lymphedema, no consensus on the timing of transplant with other lymphatic procedures has been established. The aim of this study is to describe our institutional experience with VLNT, including our staged approach and report postoperative outcomes.

METHODS: A retrospective review of patients who underwent VLNT for upper extremity lymphedema from May 2017 to April 2022 was conducted. Patients were divided into fat- or fluid-dominant phenotypes based on preoperative workup. Patients with a minimum of 12-month follow-up were included. Records were reviewed for demographic, intraoperative, and surveillance data.

RESULTS: Twenty-three patients underwent VLNT of the upper extremity during the study period, of which eighteen met the study criteria. Nine patients had fluid-dominant disease and nine patients had fat-dominant disease and had undergone prior debulking at our institution. Fluid-dominant patients demonstrated slight reductions in limb volume and hours in compression, and improvement in quality-of-life scores at twelve months. Fat-dominant patients who underwent prior debulking had a slight increase in limb volume without a change in hours of compression, and demonstrated improvements in quality-of-life scores in nearly all subdomains. Overall, 17% of patients discontinued compression therapy entirely. Improvement in extremity edema was present in 83% of postoperative MRIs.

CONCLUSION: VLNT had varying effects on limb measurements while reliably improving quality-of-life and allowing for the potential of discontinuing compression. Utilizing a staged approach wherein debulking is performed upfront may be particularly beneficial for patients with fat-dominant disease.