Efficacy of bleomycin-lauromacrogol foam in treating lymphatic malformations: a retrospective study

Abstract Background Sclerotherapy is a commonly used treatment for lymphatic malformations (LMs). However, conventional liquid sclerosants have limitations and result in suboptimal efficacy for LMs. Therefore, we prepared a bleomycin-lauromacrogol foam (BLF) formulation by combining bleomycin with lauromacrogol foam, and evaluated its efficacy and safety in the treatment of LMs. Methods We retrospectively analyzed data from 40 patients treated with BLF at our center. We extracted data on variables including age at onset, sex, lesion location, morphology, medication dosage, and treatment outcome. Of the 40 patients analyzed, 26 (65.0%) had been previously reported by Wang Q et al. Results BLF demonstrated effectiveness in this cohort of LMs, with an excellent response rate (≥ 90% volume reduction, primary endpoint) of 85.0% (34/40) and a mean of 1.25 ± 0.54 treatment sessions (range: 1–3). The overall response rate (≥ 50% volume reduction, secondary endpoint) was 92.5%, with overall response rates of 100%, 80.0%, and 75.0% for macrocystic, mixed, and microcystic subtypes, respectively. Adverse events were mild and occurred in 10% of cases. Conclusions Our findings suggest that BLF sclerotherapy may represent an effective treatment option for LMs, with a favorable overall response and procedural simplicity, although no significant association between hemorrhage status and treatment outcome was observed. Given the exploratory, single-center design and small sample size, these observations should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating and require confirmation in well-designed prospective controlled trials.