Why and how post-mastectomy edema should be quantified in patients with breast cancer

Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2002 Sep;75(1):87-9. doi: 10.1023/a:1016522319282.

Abstract

In the present study, we advocate quantifying post-mastectomy edema in patients with breast cancer in millilitres and not in centimetre, contrarily to the usual routine practice. The water displacement and perimetric quantification methods exhibited both excellent reproducibility with an intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.99 and an accuracy coefficient < 0.3%.

MeSH terms

  • Anthropometry
  • Breast Neoplasms / surgery*
  • Edema / classification*
  • Edema / etiology*
  • Endpoint Determination
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Mastectomy / adverse effects*
  • Reference Values
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Severity of Illness Index
  • Water

Substances

  • Water