Reduction of postoperative swelling with a negative pressure treatment-A prospective study.

Purpose: Perioperative swelling and edema are the main factors that influence the time to definitive operative care, healing rate, as well as postoperative infection rate. Device-based negative pressure treatment is a new method to reduce post-traumatic and postoperative swelling of the upper extremities. The objective of this study was to evaluate a new negative pressure treatment with LymphaTouch (Helsinki, Finland) to reduce perioperative swelling in upper extremity injuries.

Methods: We analyzed 45 patients (26 female and 19 male) after operative treatment of upper extremity injuries. A predefined treatment algorithm of 30 min using LymphaTouch was performed on the patients every day for five consecutive days. Swelling was measured according to the neutral-zero method with six points of measurement.

Results: A total of 16 patients underwent an operation on their upper arm. An average of 3.5 measurements was performed per patient, with the start of therapy at a mean of 5.13 days after the operation. All of the measured circumferences except the elbow and 10 cm below the elbow were reduced from day 0 to 3. The percent reduction of swelling (relative to day 0) was 10.36%, 11.35%, 17.34%, and 3.25% for days 1-4, respectively. The greatest reduction of circumference was obtained in the metacarpus (-51.6%) and wrist (-33.1%).

Conclusion: The LymphaTouch system and a 30-min treatment program can reduce postoperative swelling of the upper arm, wrist, and hand on the first 5 days after surgery. The ease of learning and self-applicability of LymphaTouch makes it interesting for further controlled randomized trials.