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Abdominal compression: A new intraoperative maneuver to detect chyle fistulas during left neck dissections that include level IV
Head & Neck, 04/27/2012
Cernea CR et al. – To the authors knowledge, this is the first description of a specific maneuver to actively detect a lymphatic fistula at the end of a left neck dissection involving level IV. In this study, intraoperative abdominal compression was able to detect an open lymphatic vessel in 6.3% of the cases, as well as to assure its effective sealing in the remaining 93.7% of the patients. Moreover, no life–threatening high–volume fistula was noted in this study.
