Therapy yields fewer post-breast surgery complications

POST-OPERATIVE application of the PICO Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) from global medical technology business Smith & Nephew (LSE: SN, NYSE: SNN) yields significantly fewer wound healing complications associated with breast reduction surgery, according to an international, multicenter-study presented at the Aesthetic Surgery of the Breast Symposium held last December 10 to 13 in Milan.

The study analyzed the effectiveness of PICO in minimizing post-surgery complications. The team, led by Dr. Robert Galiano of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, observed 200 bilateral breast reduction patients across six leading centers. The patients used PICO as an incision management system.

Findings indicate PICO NPWT resulted in significantly fewer healing complications compared with

standard post-operative wound care procedure involving surgical strips (p<0.004). There was also a 38% relative reduction in surgical dehiscence from 26.4% to 16.2% (p<0.033).

The scar quality evaluation 42 and 90 days after surgery revealed PICO provided a superior quality scar (p<0.001) over standard of care based on the Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale (POSAS) and Visual Analogue scale (VAS) scoring systems.

According to Dr. Risal Djohan, of Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, the surgical procedure has 21.6% to 35% frequency of postoperative complications, particularly among overweight or obese patients. During the presentation of the findings at Aesthetic Surgery of the Breast, Dr. Djohan said, “For a patient group with high expectations, PICO presents surgeons with an opportunity to reduce surgical incision complications and improve the aesthetic outcome.”

Dr. Maurizio Nava, congress president and associated professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Milan, said that scarring is the main source of dissatisfaction for 65% of patients. “Data from clinical investigations into breast surgery suggest that innovative devices like PICO can effectively reduce the incidence of surgical complications and improve the scar appearance, and this is particularly important for high risk patient groups. This is important for breast reduction surgery, but may also have an impact on breast reconstruction and on aesthetic interventions,” Dr. Nava added.