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clinmed/2000050005v1 (May 15, 2000)
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Mastectomy by electrodissection: a report of technique and short term complications.
Kirsten C Rasmussen, Mussa Krasniqi, Knud Søndergaard, and Steen Watt-Boolsen
Objective: Description of treatment of primary breast cancer with radical mastectomy by electrodissection technique improving short term complications.
Design: A prospective controlled study of one hundred consecutive females with operable primary breast cancer who underwent modified radical mastectomy by electrodissection employing spray-coagulation. The technique and the electrical current used is described in detail.
Results: The intraoperative bleeding ranged from 25 ml to 600 ml, median 150 ml. The short term specific and general complication rates were very low, not exceeding the rates observed using cold scalpel. The frequency of seroma was 74% partly due to early, very active shoulder training. The occurrence of seroma, the total seroma volume and the total suction tube discharge was not correlated to the area of dissection or the depth of electrical tissue injury.
Conclusion: In spite of the relatively high frequency of seroma, we advocate the use of spray-coagulation for mastectomy as bleeding is minimised, the visibility during dissection is highly increased and the rate of short term complications is very low.
