A Prospective Randomized Study Comparing Surgery Using Electrosurgical Bipolar Sealing Devices and Surgery Using Conventional Electro-cautery

Lymphorrhea and seroma are the most common complications of mastectomy in patients with breast cancer. Seroma formation increases admission period, follow-up duration, and postoperative discomforts. Repeated aspiration of seroma increases risk of re-admission due to wound infection. Seroma formation after mastectomy occurs in 10% to 85% of cases with mastectomy. Known risk factors according to previous studies are old age(>60 years), high BMI, tumor size, preoperative chemotherapy, surgical extent, and number of retrieved lymph nodes. To reduce postoperative complications including seroma formation, meticulous hemostasis and lymphatic ligation technique are necessary.

Procedures using new surgical devices such as bipolar sealing devices have been introduced. Electrosurgical bipolar sealing devices use the body's own collagen and elastin to create a permanent fusion zone through a combination of pressure and energy. Previous studies suggested that surgery using these devices lead to significant decrease of seroma formation, however their advantages are not well established in case of mastectomy for breast cancer. Several studies showed that an advanced sealing system like bipolar energy sealing system can reduce operative time and cost for postoperative management compared to conventional clamp and tie method in non-breast surgery.

If electrosurgical bipolar sealing devices are applied during mastectomy, there would be several potential benefits on vessel and lymphatic ligation. Conventional ligation and monopolar cauterization have several weak points including incompletion of ligation and thermal injury during procedures. On the other hand, electrosurgical bipolar sealing devices can provide a combination of pressure and energy simultaneously to minimize thermal injury and create a permanent fusion zone.

Previous studies suggested that electrosurgical bipolar sealing devices shortened removal time of drain after axillary lymph node dissection compared with conventional methods. Another study reported benefits on reducing blood loss, drainage amount, and length of hospital stay. Moreover, a recent study also reported that skin sparing mastectomy using electrosurgical bipolar sealing devices can be used in patients with breast cancer.

However, there are several limitations in previous studies. There was no study about application of electrosurgical bipolar sealing device for mastectomy in Korean population, because Korean national insurance did not cover use of the advanced sealing device until last year. Sample size of the previous studies was too small to draw a solid conclusion. Therefore, this study was designed prospectively to evaluate whether application of bipolar energy device for mastectomy could provide clinical benefit in terms of reducing seroma formation.