Seroma advice?

I'm six months post-LBL and all has gone very well except one annoying thing.  I have two seromas, one on my right hip and the other on the left front of my torso.  I have now spent months having them aspirated almost weekly, tried a tetracyclene type thing injected in there to irritate the walls so they'll stick together.  When that didn't work, we moved to Bleomycin, a chemo drug, and he also inserted a new drain.  After all of that, six months later, I still have two seromas, though the one that's been mostly treated may be smaller.

I've researched this topic and it is true that abdominoplasty and LBL patients have a significant risk of seroma post-op.  That said, SIX MONTHS??  Anyone else have experience with this and/or suggestions for solutions?  Thanks.

These can be a nuisance, and occur in about 10-20% of patients. They are sometimes persistent like yours.  I will try Tetra one time, and if that fails go straight to removing them as a minor procedure, and just sew them shut.  Progressive tension sutures done at the time of surgery have really decreased the incidence of them in my practice.

Be sure your nutrition is up to speed as low protein decreases your plasma oncotic pressure, leading to tissue fluid buildup.

I had persistant seromas that began at 5 1/2 weeks after my LBL - after the 2nd aspiration, mine became infected.  So, I had a surgery to scrape the lining out of the pocket - the seroma ended up being HUGE, and had 4 more drains placed.  One month later, drains were still outputting more than 200cc per day each.  I had another surgery to once again scrape the pockets and pack with talc to help them scar down -- it didn't work either.  Five weeks later another surgery with quilting -- tension sutures -- as Dr. L said below and after 5 weeks the drains were removed.  I had to have pockets aspirated 3 more times, and then I was done.  When I had my thighplasty in January, I had drains for 6 weeks - when they were pulled due to getting infected, I was putting out more than 200cc per day per leg.  Eventually the swelling stopped.  I had more seromas with the revision to my thigs at 4 mo post op. 
I had my arms and flanks done on Oct. 31 - with 4 drains places - 1 per arm, 1 per flank.  They were removed last Friday and I was only producing 20 - 30 cc per day per drain.  By Monday I had 4 seromas - 1 of them was really large.  I was drained on Tuesday - 180 cc from the one flank alone!  I was aspirated again today, and will probably be aspirated again on Monday.  If it continues to be an issue, we will have to again scrape the pocket, apply talc and quilt.  The quilting sometimes is noticable, so they don't do that unless they have to.  Thank God none of my quilting is visible!  I know that I just over produce fluid, and have had to deal with that.

If you've had the pockets this long, they have developed a lining that over produces fluid.  It has to be opened up and scraped off for the pocket to heal and scar down.  No choice there.  Ask your surgeon about that, and ask him to quilt you while he is at it!

Good luck!

I also had a seroma that lasted a long time follow ext. TT & hernia repair.  After 2-3 mos. he wanted to go back in and do a small, quick repair but I put it off, hoping it would clear up on its own.  Was having a nurse come and periodically chk'g but frequent visits to the Dr.  and keeping the drains in, etc.  After 6 mos., I "gave up,"  went into the hosp., had the short surg. and it was all fixed from then on.  I later regretted not listening to the Dr. and having it done earlier.