Effects of Microwave Heating on Lymph Flow in the Lymphedema of Extremities / 上海第二医科大学学报

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo investigate the changes of lymph flow by microwave heating whichhad achieved an excellent result in the management of lymphedema of extremities. Methods26 caseswith lymphedema of the extremities had been evaluated by means of lymphoscintigraphy using 99mTc －Dextran and SPECT to examine the lymph flow speed and half－ time(T1/2)clearance of the injection siteas well as lymphatic images of the affected limbs before and after treatment. Results The averagelymph flow speed in the affected limbs was significantly lower than that of the contralateral normal limbswith 7.82cm/min and 10.41cm/min respectively before treatment, and they increased significantly from7.82 to 9.36cm/min after two courses of treatment; in contrary, T1/2 was higher in the lymphedema-tous limbs with an average value of 154.21 min in comparison with 91.55 min contralaterally, and de-creased significantly to 115.38 min after treatment. In addition, lymphatic image disturbances improvedmarkedly in 22/26 cases(84.6% ) after treatment, especially in the patients with infectious lymphede-ma, and showed no changes in two cases. ConclusionThe results demonstrated that there was evi-dent lymph flow stasis in lymphedematous limbs, based on the preliminary calculation of lymph flow in-dexes; microwave heating could promote the lymph flow in lymphedema of extremities.