Indocyanine Green Lymphography–guided Lymphatic Vessel Suture Ligation for Superficial Abdominal Flap Donor Site for Breast Reconstruction

Abstract

Summary:. Autologous breast reconstruction using the abdominal flap based on the superficial system has the potential to minimize donor-site morbidity. Although efforts to improve its transfer have been focused, there have been scarce attempts to further reduce donor-site complications in the abdomen. Seroma formation is a significant complication after the superficial based abdominal flap harvest. The authors report our novel technique to address this issue. Using indocyanine green (ICG) lymphography, we identified lymphatic leakage sites in the abdominal donor site and repaired them by selective suture: ICG-guided lymphatic vessel suture ligation (ICG-LVSL). We performed ICG-LVSL for 10 patients who underwent breast reconstruction using the superficial abdominal flap and compared the incidence of seroma development between ICG-LVSL and non-LVSL groups. After propensity score matching, nine patients remained in each group. The ICG-LVSL group experienced lower incidence of seroma formation (0 versus 55%, P <0.01). The ICG-LVSL technique may be useful for reducing donor-site morbidity of the superficial abdominal flap.