Safety and Efficacy of Percutaneous Drain Placement for Postsurgical Breast Region Fluid Collections

The purpose of this study was to describe the safety and efficacy of percutaneous drain placement for postoperative fluid collections in the breast.

A retrospective review was conducted of the patient characteristics, intervention data, and clinical outcomes of the 43 adult patients who underwent percutaneous drain placement for fluid collections at a tertiary care hospital over a 13-year period ending February 28, 2023.

Most fluid collections treated with percutaneous drain placement were secondary to ipsilateral breast surgery (92%, 44/48), most commonly breast reduction (23%, 10/44) and mastectomy with immediate tissue expander reconstruction (16%, 7/44). Additional patients had fluid collections without prior ipsilateral breast surgery (8%, 4/48) and were excluded from further analysis. The fluid cultures from 39% of the cultured postsurgical fluid collections were positive (16/41), and Staphylococcus aureus was the most commonly cultured organism (15%, 6/41). The only immediate complication was the rupture of a tissue expander during drain placement in 1 patient. The median duration of percutaneous drainage for postsurgical fluid collections was 12 days (range: 1 to 49 days). Percutaneous drain placement achieved clinical success without any subsequent treatments in 73% (32/44) of patients. An additional 7% (3/44) of patients required subsequent image-guided aspiration procedures and/or percutaneous drain placements but avoided surgical treatment for a persistent fluid collection.

Postsurgical fluid collections after diverse breast surgeries represented the vast majority of the fluid collections referred to our academic practice for percutaneous drain placement. Percutaneous drain placement was a safe and effective treatment in this patient population.