Early lymph-drainage massage using a cosmetic roller after lymphatico-venous anastomosis compared to manual lymph drainage: a case report.

Abstract

Conservative and surgical treatment for lymphedema are performed independently, and combined treatment with lymphatico-venous anastomosis (LVA) followed by manual massage is increasingly reported. However, a problem with this approach is that manual massage cannot be initiated immediately after LVA because of concerns of injuring surgical wounds and anastomosed regions. To overcome this problem, we developed a treatment method using a cosmetic roller instead of manual massage, which allows lymph drainage to be initiated immediately after surgery. In this study, we treated a patient with bilateral lower limb lymphedema using this method. Conventional manual massage starting 3 weeks after surgery was used for the left lower limb, while early massage using a cosmetic roller was used for the right lower limb from the day after surgery. A higher therapeutic effect was obtained in the right lower limb compared to that in the left lower limb. The results in this case suggest that further studies should be performed to examine the new method in various types of patients.