Manual Lymphedema Drainage for Reducing Risk for and Managing Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema After Breast Surgery: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effects of manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) on reducing the risk of and managing breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL).

Data sources: The electronic databases ScienceDirect, Scopus, PubMed, and CINAHL were searched for articles published in the English language from January 2000 to June 2020.

Study selection: A total of 518 articles were retrieved. After the removal of duplicates, 472 articles remained, 433 of which were excluded based on title and abstract consideration. Thereafter, 39 studies were further inspected, and 27 articles were excluded because they were not randomized controlled trials, did not measure BCRL, and/or were an incomplete study. Ten studies were included for the final review.

Data extraction: Data from the 10 studies were extracted and compiled into a summary table.

Data synthesis: Based on the results of this systematic review, it cannot be concluded that MLD helps reduce the risk of BCRL for women after breast surgery. Regarding the effect of MLD on managing BCRL, the findings indicate that MLD alone or MLD combined with other treatments was likely to give similar benefits in terms of reducing arm volume for women diagnosed with BCRL.

Conclusion: Scientific evidence to support the benefits of MLD on preventing or reducing BCRL remains unclear. More rigorous studies to confirm findings on the effectiveness of MLD are needed.

Keywords: breast cancer; complete decongestive therapy; intermittent pneumatic compression; limb volume; lymphedema; manual lymphatic drainage; self lymphatic drainage; systematic review.