Case: Slowly developed oedema in the arm
Patient: Patient is approximately 60-year-old woman who has had a frontotemporal
stroke on the right side 10 years earlier. After the stroke patients left arm
has felt a bit clumsy. The patient had asked her doctor if something could
be done to the oedema slowly developed in her left arm. She felt that the
swelling was causing her harm in many ways. The doctor prescribed her 3
visits to manual lymphatic drainage therapy.
Methods: At first the patient felt sceptic about MLD therapy sessions. The treatment
was started by manual lymph drainage methods on the areas of neck,
armpits and forearm. This was followed by the treatment of the whole
upper arm using LymphaTouch with a pulsating mode of 80mmHg negative
pressure setting and 60mm mouthpiece. The treatment was the continued
moving from elbow joint to the left subclavian vein corner
(solislaskimokulmaukseen?) with a constant negative pressure setting of
50mmHg. The therapist then continued the treatment with a 50mm
mouthpiece and 50mmHg negative pressure, moving from wrist to elbow
joint and slightly over it.
The treatment was finished with by moving the 35mm mouthpiece on
patient’s fingers and wrists with a 40mmHg setting.
A compression sleeve was placed on the patient’s left arm for the next 24
hours.
Results: After the therapy session the patient noticed a change in her hands and
was astonished that even the knuckles of the left arm were visible. The
patient had a positive feeling about the treatment. She also thought it was
quite effective. After the third therapy session the circumference of the arm
had reduced with ½-1½ cm and the patient said the hand felt significantly
lighter
