In modified radical breast cancer surgery, axillary lymph node dissection is one of the key steps in the quality of surgery. In recent years, a lot of progress has been made in this area, such as localization and biopsy of anterior lymph nodes, which is also an area where breakthroughs in surgical treatment of breast cancer may occur in the future, but there are still a large number of clinical patients who need to undergo routine open axillary lymph node dissection. Reviewing the existing postoperative breast cancer patients who underwent open axillary lymph node dissection, we found that it is very common for patients to have abnormal sensations such as numbness, burning, pins and needles, and pain in the dorsal skin of the affected upper arm. Due to the pain and discomfort, the patients dare not or seldom move the affected shoulder joint, and the shoulder joint activity is limited or stiff and frozen, which seriously affects the function and quality of life of the patient’s arm after surgery. The reason for this is that in order to completely remove the lymphatic system during the conventional open axillary lymph node dissection, the whole axillary tissue must be removed, while the intercostal brachial nerve is penetrated in the fatty tissue at the top of the axilla, which is not easy to identify and separate, so most of them are removed together with the dissection. In the existing surgical atlas of modified radical surgery for breast cancer at home and abroad, there are few illustrations showing the presence and course of the intercostal brachial nerve after axillary fossa clearance, which shows that this phenomenon has not attracted profound attention from the industry. Through clinical studies and observations of many cases, we found that the use of lipolysis and scraping for axillary lymph node dissection can better solve this problem, and this method can well reveal the intercostal brachial nerve, so that it can avoid accidental injury and incision, and also greatly simplify the operation while ensuring the quality of dissection. The nerve was well exposed and protected, and the sensation and function of the upper arm of the affected limb were significantly improved. Therefore, we believe that when open axillary lymph node dissection is performed for breast cancer, the use of lipolysis and scraping can well protect the intercostal nerve and its function, thus reducing the numbness, pain, stiffness of the shoulder joint and inconvenience of the upper arm on the affected side after surgery, so the lipolysis and scraping method has greater clinical significance and practical value.