Immediate liposuction could shorten the time for endoscopic axillary lymphadenectomy in breast cancer patients.

[BACKGROUND] Endoscopic axillary lymphadenectomy (EALND) was introduced to clinical work to reduce side effects of conventional axillary lymphadenectomy, while the lipolysis and liposuction of EALND made the process consume more time. The aim of the study was to determine whether immediate liposuction after tumescent solution injection to the axilla could shorten the total time of EALND.

[METHODS] Fifty-nine patients were enrolled in the study, 30 of them received EALND with traditional liposuction method (TLM), and the rest 29 patients received EALND with immediate liposuction method (ILM). The operation time, cosmetic result, drainage amount, and hospitalization time of the two groups were compared.

[RESULTS] The median EALND operation time of TLM group and ILM group were 68 and 46 min, respectively, the difference was significant (P < 0.05); the median cosmetic results of the two groups were 6.6 and 6.4, respectively; the median drainage amount of the two groups were 366 and 385 ml, respectively; the hospitalization time of the two groups were 15 and 16 days, respectively. For the last three measures, no significant difference was confirmed (P > 0.05).

[CONCLUSIONS] Our work suggests immediate liposuction could shorten the endoscopic axillary lymphadenectomy process, and this method would not compromise the operation results. However, due to the limitations of the research, more work needs to be done to prove the availability and feasibility of immediate liposuction.