No-drain Technique in Abdominal Closure for Breast Reconstruction: Lower Complication Rate, Shorter Hospitalization Stay

Progressive tension suture (PTS) technique in cosmetic abdominoplasty is safe in terms of seroma rates. This was extrapolated to deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap donor site closure. No study to our knowledge has analyzed the PTS technique alone without drains in transverse rectus abdominis musculocutaneous (TRAM) flap donor sites. We aim to show that no-drain closure has similar complication rates and this may be applied to TRAM flaps safely even though they have higher drain output.