None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
To discover whether specialised arm massage, known as manual lymphatic drainage, is helpful in addition to standard measures in preventing arm swelling after axillary node clearance as part of surgical treatment of breast cancer.
Interventions
Manual lymphatic drainage, performed initially by lymphoedema-trained physiotherapists who will also instruct patients how to perform manual lymphatic drainage, to be done on a daily basis, for less than one hour for six weeks postoperatively. Manual lymphatic drainage is a specialised form of massage designed to assist drainage of the excess lymph fluid from the upper chest and arm. It is a very light skin massage (as opposed to deep tissue/sports-type massage) and hence can be performed by a t
Manual lymphatic drainage, performed initially by lymphoedema-trained physiotherapists who will also instruct patients how to perform manual lymphatic drainage, to be done on a daily basis, for less than one hour for six weeks postoperatively. Manual lymphatic drainage is a specialised form of massage designed to assist drainage of the excess lymph fluid from the upper chest and arm. It is a very light skin massage (as opposed to deep tissue/sports-type massage) and hence can be performed by a trained physiotherapist but also by patients themselves.
Sponsors
Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
0 to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Patients undergoing axillary lymph node clearance for primary operable breast cancer
Exclusion criteria
Recurrent breast cancer Previous axillary surgery Previous axillary radiotherapy Previous axillary/arm pathology leading to arm volume changes
Outcome results
None listed