Ultracision versus electrocautery in performing modified radical mastectomy and axillary lymph node dissection for breast cancer: a prospective randomized control trial.

BACKGROUND Treatment for breast cancer has improved dramatically over the decades. Nevertheless, modified radical mastectomy with axillary dissection remains the standard treatment for most patients, especially those with big tumours. The conventional technology is to use diathermy to cut and coagulate blood vessels. The Ultracision dissector has been widely used in laparoscopic surgery and is documented to be safe and fast for cutting and coagulating tissue. The aim of this study is to compare ultracision to electrocautery, looking in terms of amount of post operative drainage, duration of drain days, seroma formation and other complications. METHODOLOGY This study was a prospective randomized control trial of modified radical mastectomy performed for breast cancer in Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PPUKM) between 1st June 2007 to 31st December 2008. Patients were randomized in two groups: group A (n = 20) underwent modified radical mastectomy using ultracision (UC) and group B (n = 20) with the conventional electrocautery (EC) method. Main outcome measures were amount of drainage and duration of drain days. An unpaired 2-tailed Student's t test and the χ2 test to compare the groups. RESULTS A total of 40 patients were involved in this study. The majority of patients were Malay (55%) followed by Chinese (35%), Indian (5%) and others (5%). The mean volume of drainage from the axilla in the EC group was significantly higher than UC group [489.5 versus 188.1 mls (p < 0.001)]. The mean volume of drainage from the breast and the total drainage from both the breast and axilla was also significantly higher in the EC group compared to UC [169.3 versus 58.8 mls (p = 0.004) and 663.7 versus 247.0 mls (p < 0.002) respectively]. The drainage consequently showed significant reduction in terms of drain days in the axilla [6 days versus 3 days (p < 0.002)] and the breast [3 days versus 2 days (p < 0.002)] in the UC compared to the EC. There was no significant complication in both arms. In conclusion, the use of ultracision able to reduce the amount of drainage and the number of drain days after performing modified radical mastectomy. In doing so, the use of this technology enable us to discharge patients earlier without significant morbidities.