• Mads Gustaf Jørgensen, Navid Mohamadpour Toyserkani, Jørn Bo Thomsen, and Jens Ahm Sørensen.
• Department of Plastic Surgery, Odense University Hospital, Sdr. Boulevard 29, 5000 Odense, Denmark.
• J Plast Reconstr Aesthet Surg. 2019 Jul 1; 72 (7): 1178-1183.

BackgroundInguinal lymphadenectomy (ILND) for melanoma is associated with a number of complications including seroma, surgical site infection (SSI), and lymphedema. Incisional negative pressure wound therapy (iNPWT) has shown promising results in preventing postoperative morbidity across a wide variety of surgical procedures, but these results are yet to be investigated in patients undergoing ILND for melanoma.MethodsIn this study, we reviewed the data of 55 melanoma patients treated with ILND between January 2015 and January 2017 at Odense University Hospital. Patients were followed up until April 2018 for the occurrence of seroma, SSI, and lymphedema. We used prophylactic iNPWT after ILND in 14 patients and compared their morbidity outcomes with the 41 patients receiving standard postoperative wound care in the same period.ResultsThe iNPWT intervention significantly reduced seroma compared to the control group (28.6% vs. 90.3%, p < 0.001) and had a trending impact on wound infection (42.9% vs. 65.9%, p = 0.13). The effect was not significant for the prevention of lymphedema (35.7% vs. 51.2%, p = 0.33). Because the iNPWT group had relatively fewer incidences of seroma, SSI, and lymphedema, the iNPWT intervention was more cost-effective than conventional wound care (US$911.2 vs. US$2542.7, p < 0.05).ConclusionThe use of prophylactic iNPWT significantly reduced seroma formation following ILND. These promising results, however, need to be confirmed in a future prospective randomized trial.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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