Axillary Drainage Following Lymph Node Dissection in Women With Stage I or Stage II Breast Cancer

Overview

RATIONALE: The use of axillary drains may help to prevent complications following axillary lymph node dissection. PURPOSE: This randomized clinical trial is comparing three methods of axillary drainage to see how well they work following lymph node dissection in women with stage I or stage II breast cancer.

OBJECTIVES: * Compare high vacuum drainage vs low vacuum drainage vs simple tube drainage in patients undergoing axillary surgery for stage I or II breast cancer. OUTLINE: This is a randomized study. Patients undergo axillary dissection, then are randomized to one of three axillary drainage systems. * Arm I: Patients receive high vacuum drainage. * Arm II: Patients receive low vacuum drainage. * Arm III: Patients receive simple tube drainage (no vacuum). All drains are removed when daily volumes are below 30 mL or at 5 days after surgery, regardless of drain volume. Patients are followed at day 10 and at 3 months. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 200 patients will be accrued for this study.

Conditions

Interventions

Eligibility

Locations (2)