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

Abstract

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