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Page 6 of 16 Raman et al. Plast Aesthet Res 2023;10:6 https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2347-9264.2022.62

Table 2. Patient demographics. Only data extractable from studies was reported
Variable Outcome
Total number of patients 2316
Total number of flaps 2376
Gender (n patients, % of total)
Male 175 (7.6)
Female 1479 (63.9)
Unspecified 662 (28.5)
Age (mean ± SD) 54.0 ± 5.4
BMI (mean ± SD) 27.2 ± 2.5
Etiology of lymphedema
Primary 145 (6.3)
Secondary 1838 (79.4)
Unspecified 333 (14.4)
Medical comorbidities
Radiation 636 (27.5)
Chemotherapy 314 (13.6)
Diabetes 31 (1.3)
HTN 59 (2.5)
Smoking 18 (0.8)
Duration of lymphedema (months) 51.1 ± 34.1
Donor site (n patients, % of total)
Groin 604 (26.1)
Submental 304 (13.1)
Omentum 467 (20.2)
Supraclavicular 206 (8.9)
Lateral Thoracic 62 (2.7)
Appendicular 1 (0.04)
Ileocecal 2 (0.09)
Jejunal mesenteric N.S.
Unspecified † 670 (28.9)
Extra- or intra-abdominal site
Extra-abdominal site 1606 (69.3)
Intra-abdominal site 499 (21.5)
Unspecified † 211 (9.1)
Recipient site (n patients, % of total)
Upper extremity 877 (37.9)
Lower extremity 624 (26.9)
Upper and lower extremity* 722 (31.2)
Unspecified 93 (4.0)
Mean length of follow-up (months) 24.1 ± 16.4

SD: standard deviation; BMI: body mass index; HTN: hypertension. †Unspecified donor site or intervention groups involving patients receiving
vascularized lymph node transfer from numerous donor sites. It should be noted that some patients could be categorized into extra- and intra-
abdominal site groups even if it was unclear how many patients received each specific flap. *Unspecified amount of patients receiving a
vascularized lymph node transfer to the upper and lower limb within an intervention group.

infection rate was observed after supraclavicular VLNT (65.6% ± 9.5 %) [Table 3]. Follow-up periods for
each investigation are reported in Supplementary Table 3.