External application of Chinese medicine combined with lymphatic drainage on upper limb edema of postoperative breast cancer

LIU Yong-ming; LIU Zhao-zhe; XIE Xiao-dong

doi:10.16048/j.issn.2095-5561.2017.02.03

Abstract：Objective To investigate the clinical effect of external application of Chinese medicine combined with lymphatic drainage on postoperative upper limb edema of breast cancer.Methods A retrospective study was performed on 80 cases of postoperative upper limb edema who were admitted from January 2016 to December 2016.The patients were randomly divided into the combination group and the conventional group,with 40 cases in each group.The patients in the convention group were treated with lymphatic drainage technique combined with local limb functional exercise;the patients in the combination group were treated with external application of Chinese medicine combined with lymphatic drainage and local limb function.After 3 weeks of treatment,the adverse effects were evaluated by measuring the difference in the arms,the degree of pain,and the quality of life of the patients.Results After 3 weeks of treatment,the difference between left and right arm of the combination group was significantly lower than that of the conventional group(P<0.05);the VAS score of the combination group was significantly lower than that of the conventional group after treatment(P<0.05);the score of quality of life in the combination group was significantly higher than that in the conventional group(P<0.05);the total effective rate of the combination group(95.00%) was significantly higher than that of the conventional group(82.5%),all the differences had statistical significance(P<0.05).Conclusion The clinical effect of traditional Chinese medicine combined with lymphatic drainage on the treatment of postoperative upper limb edema of breast cancer is remarkable and deserves clinical promotion.