Plastic Surgery and Modern Techniques

To consolidate the feasibility, safety and effectiveness in performing axillary lymph node dissection in breast surgery and in patients with stage III melanoma, using the electrothermal bipolar vessel sealing system, we revisit and analyze the main studies on the subject, in order to identify its use as the best in this surgical practice. This skill is a bipolar electrosurgical technology for sealing blood vessels of up to 7 mm in diameter, introduced in recent years and used widely for a variety of laparoscopic and open surgical procedures, with several companies that have offered increasingly modern and manageable type of devices. All of these instruments allow to dissect smoothly, fuse the vessel walls, obliterating the vascular and lymph vessel lumen and cut effectively, greatly limiting the use of sutures and other alternative devices, making the best efficient way to seal blood and lymph vessels permanently and completely; all the studies revisited suggest their usefulness in breast surgery, especially in axillary dissection, because the reduction of the duration until drain removal and total drainage volume, and the complication rates comparable to those seen on using conventional devices.