Is drainage necessary after excisional biopsy for breast masses?

Betvveen the period December 1999 and February 2001, 93 women who undervvent excision biopsy of the breast were included into a controlled randomized trial to determine the effect on postoperative morbidity and hospital stay of drainage of the biopsy cavity. Among the 93 patients, drain was used in 45 (group I) and 48 (group II) had no drain. The vvounds were examined seven days after operation vvith ultrasonography. Collections such us haematoma or seroma were present in 41 (%91.1) patients with undrained vvounds compared with 39 (%81) patients wuth drained vvounds. Median collection volüme was 30.67 ml±24.87 (SD) (range 0-140) in the undrained group and 25.00±16.47 mİ (SD) (range 0-80) in the drained group. There vvas one infection (% 2.2) in undrained group and two (% 4.1) in drained group. While there vvas no significant difference betvveen two groups in terms of vvound infection and seroma (p>0.05), the length of hospital stay vvas statistically longer in drainage group (p<0.01). We conclude that breast biopsy cavity drainage with penrose drain, does notprevents vvound collections and infections.