Therapeutical Strategies to Prevent Abdominoplasty Complications: A Systematic Review

Abdominoplasty is one of the most commonly performed procedures. Despite improvements in the abdominoplasty technique, seroma is the most common complication, ranging from 5 to 43%. This study aimed to review the literature to compare therapeutic strategies to prevent common adverse events in abdominoplasty.

This review analyzed patients of both sexes older than 18 years who underwent abdominoplasty with or without liposuction. This study analyzed the following endpoints: frequency of seromas, surgical site infection, hematoma, dehiscence, necrosis, death, treatment duration for adverse events, length of hospital stay, seroma/hematoma volume.

We analyzed 24 articles, totaling 2997 participants with ages ranging from 18 to 85 years. The meta-analysis of 4 studies, with 180 participants, showed a 69% reduction in the occurrence of seroma when Scarpa’s fascia preservation was adopted (OR, 0.38; 95%CI 0.16–0.91). Regarding other complications, Scarpa’s fascia preservation showed a lower risk of infection (OR 0.31; 95%CI 0.12–0.79) and also lower risk of hematoma (OR 0.29; 95% CI 0.09–0.95) in seroma for Scarpa’s fascia preservation when compared to not fascia’s preservation.

This review suggests that Scarpa fascia preservation decreases seromas, infections, and hematomas. However, more randomized controlled trials are necessary to improve the level of certainty.

This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266.