Methods of lymphoedema reduction presented in view of literature – systematic review

Abstract

Lymphoedema (LE) is a serious oncological complication of breast cancer treatment. Untreated, it leads to several changes in the upper limbs of patients, including limiting the mobility of joints and functions. Schematic complete decongestive therapy (CDT) is one of the most common methods of conservative treatment of LE. Complete decongestive therapy regimen is also often used as monotherapy for selected items, such as: manual lymphatic drainage, compression therapy and exercises for improvement. This study is a systematic review of scientific publications on the reduction of the lymphoedemas associated with breast cancer (BCRL). The aim of the research study was to present of the methods used to reduce LE associated with breast cancer. All the analysed papers were selected from Medline after ticking the following options: publication type – clinical trail; availability of text – free full text available; published – in the last 5 years. For final analysis, 9 (6 randomised and 3 non-randomised) studies were chosen out of the 1,392 records showing different methods of conservative treatment of BCRL. Based on the available literature, the greatest reduction in LE was obtained using different methods of conservative treatment. Of note are the studies which evaluate the effectiveness of new methods that are not part of the commonly used CDT scheme in practice. The education strategy generally supports such methods.

Keywords

• lymphoedema
• breast cancer
• systematic review