What treatments have been shown to offer relief for lymphoedema after breast cancer?
Self-management with compression bandaging can help reduce lymphoedema after breast cancer. Professional manual lymphatic drainage might help as well. Because lymphoedema often gets worse and harder to treat over time, early recognition of the problem is important. Lymphoedema (or lymphedema) is a swelling of the arm, leg, breast or other part of the body caused by a build-up of lymph fluid. “Lymph” is a clear fluid that circulates throughout our bodies. The word “oedema” comes from the Greek for “swelling”, and the condition is caused by fluid retention. The lymph or lymphatic system helps protect our bodies from infection. Just as the cardiovascular system circulates blood around our bodies through a network of blood vessels, the lymph vessels circulate lymph around the body. The lymph vessels drain fluid out of the tissues and then carry it to glands called the lymph nodes. The lymph nodes filter out and destroy bacteria and other harmful substances. The lymph vessels then send the
