Seroma is an obvious serous accumulation phenomenon, which is composed of liquefied fat, serum and lymph. The difference between seroma and hematoma is that hematoma contains red blood cells, while seroma has no red blood cells.

There are many reasons for seroma: for example, improper operation (such as improper stitches removal) may lead to seroma. In addition, it also includes the following reasons:

Swelling caused by hitting or falling;

The patient has related physical complications (anemia, coagulation dysfunction, diabetes, etc. ), leading to weak tissue regeneration ability and weak absorption ability of inflammatory substances, and such patients are prone to seroma;

The activity of fibrinolytic protein increased after operation;

Inflammatory reaction caused by implanted materials;

Inflammatory exudation occurred after the wound healed.

Seroma is common in breast surgery (such as mastectomy), abdominal surgery and reconstruction surgery (such as facial reconstruction surgery), and the incidence rate is about 15% to 30%. The greater the intervention of surgery on the body, the higher the probability of seroma. The treatment time of large seroma is longer than that of small seroma, and it is more prone to secondary infection. If the tissue around seroma begins to harden, the symptoms of seroma may be prolonged to several months or even years.

Besides fine needle aspiration, there are other methods to treat seroma, such as pressure dressing, manual lymphatic drainage and cyst aspiration. Some treatment cycles may last for weeks or even longer.

Michael Depalma, P. Prithvi Raj and others pointed out that it is controversial to remove seroma by fine needle aspiration, because even under aseptic conditions, aspiration will bring certain infection risks.

Some medical literature (breast ultrasound, cancer diagnosis, treatment and prognosis: respiratory cancer, etc. It is believed that serum tumor formed at tumor resection site is beneficial to human body, and its benefits include maintaining breast contour.

How to prevent it

In today's mature surgical techniques, subtle bleeding control and mild surgical procedures can greatly reduce the probability of seroma. In addition, in some operations, the posture of avoiding pressure on the surgical site can also reduce the probability of seroma. For example, in abdominal plastic surgery, try not to use postures that can exert pressure on the lower abdomen, such as bending your knees, sitting up straight, and bending your hips.