History of surgical treatment of lymphatic drainage at the Department of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno

The Department of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, St. Anne's University Hospital in Brno, and Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University, Brno, has a long history of surgical treatment of lymphedema and elephantiasis, which started in 1970s. There were many types of surgeries described and performed at our department - starting with prof. Bařinka's radical operation of elephantiasis, then lower limb end-to-side lymphovenous anastomosis pulled through the wall to the great saphenous vein, and genital lymphedema reduction. We call this era "the first period" of surgical lymphedema treatment. "The second period" started in 2016 by using free flaps with lymph nodes or vascularized lymph nodes and using microsurgical techniques of end-to-end, end-to-side and side-to-end lymphovenous anastomoses to the subcutaneous veins of a small calibre, which then drain the lymph into the blood stream. "The third period" started 2 years ago after the visit of prof. Yang from Taiwan - we started to use the method of single stitch end-to-side anastomosis to big subcutaneous veins like the great saphenous vein or the cephalic vein.