Efficacy of Microsurgical Treatment of Primary Lymphedema: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Treatment of lymphedema remains a challenging clinical problem. Lymphatic surgery has recently gained momentum as an effective method to treat both early- and late-stage disease. In particular, "physiologic" microsurgical techniques including vascularized lymph node transplant and lymphovenous bypass/anastomosis have been shown to be effective in treating even advanced lymphedema. Most published reports describe techniques and success in secondary lymphedema. Traditionally, physiologic surgery was not believed to be useful in the treatment of primary lymphedema where baseline lymphatic function is abnormal. However, recent studies have shown a benefit in these cases. The objective of this study is to evaluate outcomes and complications of physiologic microsurgical treatment for primary lymphedema.

Methods: The electronic databases of PubMed, Scopus, and MEDLINE were searched using key words "primary lymphedema" and "surgery" (also vascularized lymph node transplant, lymphovenous bypass, microsurgery). Only human studies published between 2000 and 2021 were included. Studies that only included ablative or resection surgeries were excluded.

Results: A total of 10 studies comprising 254 patients with primary lymphedema who underwent 357 physiologic microsurgical operations were included. Lymphovenous bypass comprised 88% of cases, and in the patients who underwent vascularized lymph node transplant, all but 1 flap survived. Regardless of type of operative intervention, all studies showed a statistically significant improvement in lymphedema, through either reduction in limb circumference or edema volume or improvement in quality of life.

Discussion: Physiologic lymphatic surgery has shown success and improvement for patients with primary lymphedema. Based on current literature, physiologic surgical treatment of primary lymphedema should be considered when treating this patient population.