Microsurgery for treatment of peripheral lymphedema: long-term outcome and future perspectives.

Authors report over 30 years of their own clinical experience in the treatment of chronic peripheral lymphedemas by microsurgical techniques performed at the Center of Lymphatic Surgery of the University of Genoa, Italy. Over 1,500 lymphedema patients were treated with microsurgical techniques. Derivative lymphatic-venous techniques were most often used. For those cases where a venous disease was associated to lymphedema, reconstructive lymphatic microsurgery techniques were performed (lymphatic-venous-lymphatic-plasty). Objective assessment was undertaken by water volumetry and lymphoscintigraphy. Volume changes showed a significant improvement in over 83%, with an average follow-up of more than 10 years. There was an 87% reduction in the incidence of cellulitic attacks after microsurgery. Microsurgical lymphatic-venous anastomoses have a place in the treatment of peripheral lymphedema and should be the therapy of choice in patients who are not sufficiently responsive to nonoperative treatment. Improved results can be expected with operations performed at earlier lymphedema stages.

The lymphatics in the pathophysiology of thoracic and abdominal surgical pathology: immunological consequences and the unexpected role of microsurgery.

The authors report their experience in the diagnosis and treatment of lymphatic and chylous disorders in the thoracic and abdominal areas. Sixteen patients (10 adults, 6 children) affected by primary chylous ascites with associated syndromes and consequent immunological incompetence were studied. Diagnostic investigations included abdominal sonography scans, lymphoscintigraphy, and lymphography combined with computed tomography and laparoscopy. Surgical treatment included laparoscopy, drainage of ascites and/or the chylothorax, treatment of abdominal and retroperitoneal chylous leaks, exeresis of lymphodysplastic tissues, ligation of incompetent lymph vessels also by CO(2) LASER, and chylo-venous and lympho-venous microsurgical shunts. Eleven patients did not have a relapse of the ascites and four patients had a persistence of a small quantity of ascites with no protein imbalance. All patients had an improvement of their immunocompetence. Median follow-up was 5 years. We demonstrated that the use of microsurgery is remarkably advantageous for performing a causal treatment of the dysfunction.