Tetracycline Sclerotherapy for Seroma: A Systematic Review

Background: Seroma is a common challenging postoperative complication faced by surgeons. Despite understanding the risk factors, surgeons are still trying to identify a noninvasive way to treat seroma.

Method: A database search was conducted in PubMed by the author for all articles using the following terms “seroma,” “sclerotherapy,” and “tetracycline.” All English-language studies using tetracycline as sclerotherapy to treat or prevent seroma were included.

Result: A total of five studies were included; two of them used tetracycline as a treatment for established postoperative seroma, which was beneficial for a total of 9 patients, and the other three used tetracycline as prophylaxis, but one study was aborted, as the drug was not helpful in reducing seroma.

Conclusion: Using tetracycline as a treatment for established seroma is beneficial but using tetracycline as prophylaxis is not beneficial and may aggravate seroma.