Walking suture na redução de um amplo espaço morto secundário a uma mastectomia canina – relato de caso

Abstract

Mastectomy is the treatment of choice for tumors of the mammary gland. Since infiltrative tumors with expansive ulcerations are more aggressive, problems may occur in surgical synthesis due to lack of skin to close the wound. A walking suture was used to reduce de dead space resulting from a canine surgical mastectomy and enable synthesis and stress reduction, thus improving the healing process. Some authors prefer not to use large amounts of suture material in order to decrease the inflammatory process. The main positive aspects of the walking suture are effectiveness in reducing stress and the obliteration of dead space. Possible drawbacks in the case of suture overuse are high probability of circulatory impairment of direct cutaneous vessel and of the subdermal plexus, as well as potential for seroma formation. Such problems, however, were not observed in the case described herewith, in which the walking suture had satisfactory results.