Kim Y, et al. – The effectiveness and safety of sclerotherapy as the treatment of infected postoperative lymphocele in gynecologic malignancy patients is assessed in this study. The outcome suggests sclerotherapy significantly decreases the drainage volume and might help shorten catheter placement time in infected lymphoceles.

Methods

• In this study, percutaneous catheter drainage (PCD) with or without sclerotherapy was performed for postoperative lymphocele in 75 patients from 2002 to 2014.
• 88 lymphoceles (43 non–infected as group A, 45 infected as group B) in 75 patients (mean age ± SD; 50.3 ± 11.3) were incorporated.
• Sclerotherapy was performed in 17 (39.5%, group A–S) lymphoceles in group A and 14 (31.1%, group B–S) in group B.
• Absolute ethanol was the most frequently utilized sclerosant (28 of total 36 sessions).
• 37 months (range: 1–154) was the mean follow–up period.

Results

• Sclerotherapy was clinically effective in 13 lymphoceles in both group A–S (76.5%) and group B–S (92.9%) without statistical significance.
• Compared to the pre–sclerotherapy period, group B–S exhibited significantly reduced drainage volume after sclerotherapy (662.7 ml vs. 100.6 ml, p = 0.019).
• Group A–S failed to show significant decrease in drainage volume after sclerotherapy.
• Recurrence occurred in 4 patients in group A–S and 1 in group B–S, without statistical importance.
• There was no major complication noted in this study.