No abstract

To quantitate visual findings in lymphoscintigraphy with 99mTc-labeled stannous sulfur colloids, a numeric index of transport kinetics was designed by combining visual assessment of five criteria: temporal and spatial distribution of the radionuclide, appearance time of lymph nodes, and graded visualization of lymph nodes and vessels. For assessment, scores were used ranging from 0 to 9. Thus, the resulting transport index (TI) ranged from 0 (normal) to 45 (pathological). TI in healthy extremities was less than 10. Lymphoscintigraphy was performed routinely in healthy lower extremities to ensure normal drainage before transplantation. In 122 investigations of upper and lower extremities, TI was found to be very sensitive (97.4%). Specificity was 90.3%. An interobserver study in 179 investigations revealed a high correlation (r = 0.96). A total of 23 patients underwent autologous lymphatic transplantation. The average decrease of TI was 5.9: 31.1 before and 25.2 after transplantation. This decrease of TI was correlated with a marked decrease of the volumes of the extremities (from 3423 ml to 2580 ml). Changes in TI and volume were significant (p less than 0.05). This method of evaluation has proved to be very sensitive, reproducible, and able to measure the transport capacity of only two or three transplanted lymph collectors.

Lipectomy is a standard procedure in plastic surgery. Until now, however, there was no definite information about the influence of different liposuction techniques (tumescent versus dry liposuction) on the integrity of lymph collectors during this procedure. To study the effect of these liposuction techniques on the incidence of lymph vessel injury, postmortem lymphatic preparations were done in nine human cadavers (18 lower extremities). Conventional liposuction with a blunt 4-mm cannula in the dry technique (n = 29 regions) was compared with the tumescent technique (n = 26). Liposuction was performed in parallel to the superficial lymph vessels (longitudinal suction) or transversally in an 80-degree to 90-degree angle to the extremity (vertical suction). Careful surgical preparation of different regions followed. A specific macroscopic lymph vessel injury score was applied to differentiate three degrees of lymph vessel lesions according to the extravasation of patent blue. In all lower extremities, postmortem lymph flow occurred as indicated by patent blue staining of the lymph vessels. Injection of fluid that is obligatory during tumescent suction did not result in grade 2 injury. On the contrary, tumescent suction overall produced significantly fewer lymph vessel lesions when compared with the dry technique (p < 0.05). Longitudinal liposuction produced significantly less injury when compared with vertical suction (p < 0.05). Tumescent suction and dry suction were equally effective in removing adipose aspirates, as verified by circumference measurements. In addition, tumescent liposuction is unlikely to cause major lesions of epifascial lymph vessels during suction procedures vertical to the extremity axis. Therefore, in this respect, this technique is superior to dry suction.