ABSTRACT
Lymphedema is a common complication after surgical treatment of breast cancer. MLD is standard care of it, but this treatment has some limitation such as time consumption and dependence of therapist. An alternative treatment modality is IPC. In this study we compared therapeutic effects of these two modalities on lymphedema in surgically-treated breast cancer patients who referred to physical medicine and rehabilitation service of shohada medical center in 2008-2009. This study was final studental research. In this randomized clinical trials we studied patients with unilateral lymphedema of upper limb as a complication of mastectomy for breast cancer treatment who referred to our service. 11 patients were treated by IPC method [cases group] and 12 patients were treated by MLD method [control group]. Each patient was treated for 10 session. Before trial, 5th and 10th session after treatment the Lymphedema was assessed in five part of limb [hand, wrist, 5 cm below elbow, 5 and 10 cm above elbow]. Results were compared between groups and also in each group before and after treatment with t-paired test [independent and paired] and repeated measure ANOVA and SPSS 16th edition. The mean [ +/- SD] of age was 46.6 +/- 9.4 years in cases and 45.8 +/- 9.3 years in control group. The mean [ +/- SD] of lymphedema was 133 +/- 9 [cm] in cases and 135 +/- 9 [cm] in control groups after 10 session treatment. There was no significant difference between two groups. Our results suggest that improvement of lymphedema have not significant different in these methods, but further studies are necessary for final judgment