ABSTRACT
Objective To deeply understand the risk factors of lymphedema for patients with breast cancer after surgery. Methods The phenomenological method was applied in this study. Semi-structured interview was used to collected data from 9 female breast cancer patients with lymphedema after surgery in our hospital from June to September 2016 for generic analysis. Results The risk factors of lymphedema could be categorized into four themes:(1)choice of treatment is the primary cause:axillary lymph node dissection; radiotherapy; chemotherapy; (2)not paying enough attention to lymphedema:lacking the knowledge of lymphedema; imbalance of physical activities for the affected limb; lacking awareness of exercise and protection of the affected limb. Conclusions Axillary lymph node dissection after radical surgery for patients with breast cancer is the primary cause of lymphedema, and paying not enough attention is an important factor, especially lacking the consciousness of prevention, so the nurses should emphasize education about prevention of lymphedema after surgery for patients, to improve the consciousness of them to reduce the occurrence of lymphedema and its influence on their quality of life.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVES</b>To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of open preperitoneal herniorraphy comparing with traditional Lichtenstein tension-free herniorraphy on the surgical treatment of inguinal hernia.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The clinical data of 249 patients with inguinal hernia admitted from October 2008 to December 2013 were reviewed retrospectively.Eighty-three patients received preperitoneal herniorraphy (preperitoneal group), there were 76 male and 7 female patients with a mean age of (70 ± 10) years.One hundred and seventy-three patients underwent Lichtenstein procedure (Lichtenstein group), there were 162 male and 11 femal patients with a mean age of (60 ± 16) years. The peri-operative performance, recurrence rate and postoperative morbidities of the patients underwent preperitoneal herniorraphy and traditional Lichtenstein herniorraphy were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The operation time of the preperitoneal group (60 ± 11) minutes was significantly shorter than the Lichtenstein group (63 ± 8) minutes (t = -2.16, P = 0.032). The preperitoneal group showed significantly earlier out-of-bed activity ((6.2 ± 1.8) hours) than the Lichtenstein group ((15.0 ± 2.8) hours) (t = -13.2, P = 0.000). The visual analogue scale score on 24 hours postoperative was also lower in the preperitoneal group (4.0 ± 0.9) than in the Lichtenstein group (4.6 ± 1.4) (t = -4.11, P = 0.000). The two groups had no significant difference on the cost. There was one incision infection in preperitoneal group (1.20%).Four fat liquefaction (2.31%) and one patch rejection (0.58%) were found in Lichtenstein group. The incidence of complication of the two groups had no significant difference (P > 0.05). All the patients were followed up for 6 to 36 months, and there was no recurrence among all these patients.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>There is no significant difference on the safety and effectiveness between preperitoneal herniorraphy and traditional Lichtenstein procedure on inguinal hernia.Open preperitoneal herniorraphy and can be applied for surgical treatment of recurrent or femoral hernia.</p>