Breast cancer is one of the most influential diseases in women’s health. After its diagnosis and intervention, some collateral damages occur due to the interventions and as a consequence of radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments.
1. Pain:
After the psychological and traumatic process of the patient, it is a fundamental pillar to recover from her breast cancer and readapt to life in a functional way.
Treatment
All post-surgical techniques have to deal with the processes that cause pain: inflammation, retraction, atrophy, auricular restriction…
Auricular restrictions and functional impotence:
After surgery, all involved muscular and skeletal parts are affected in various ways. One of them is the glenohumeral and acromiohumeral joints, since all the muscles that surround them are affected in turn, atrophy and cause functional impotence.
Another affected system is the fascial system. The human body is wrapped through this connective tissue that surrounds muscles and viscera. Lack of proper movement ultimately decreases the tissue’s ability to grow and heal.
Treatment
The Fisiomedico institute proposes a series of specific treatments for the affected parts, such as soft tissue treatment with manual therapy, work on the fascial system with the CelluM6, manual myofascial stretching therapy and combined therapy with the Hubber Motion Lab.
Joint mobility is also restored with active and passive kinesitherapy, combined with pilates program specialized in breast pathology and Hubber.
3. Seroma:
It is a serous fluid that accumulates within a post-surgical residual cavity. It can occur in the spaces between skin, fat, muscle, nerves and connective tissue cells. It is the most frequent complication of breast surgery, with an incidence of more than 60% of patients.
4. Lymphorrhea:
It is a complication related to axillary lymph node ablation as part of the surgical treatment of breast cancer. After this ablation, the afferent and efferent lymphatic vessels sometimes leak the lymph they contain, which can lead to seroma, and, in turn, infection. Between 15 and 45% of patients suffer from this.
Treatment
It is treated with advanced manual lymphatic drainage techniques.
5. Edema:
It is the presence of excess fluids in body tissues after a traumatic process or surgery. It usually occurs in the extracellular fluid compartment, but can also affect intracellular fluids.
Treatment
It is treated either with manual lymphatic drainage or with the CelluM6 mechanical drainage technique, which, with its mechanical effect, stimulates the work of the lymphatic system and promotes the reabsorption of edema.
6. Scars:
Every year in the developed world there are 100 million patients who acquire scars as a result of 55 million elective operations and 25 million operations after trauma. The scarring process has several phases: inflammation, repair and tissue remodeling. A modification of any of these steps can result in an abnormal repair, which may manifest as a hypertrophic, atrophic or keloid scar.
Treatment
There are several treatments but our institute opts for manual lymphatic drainage, which is a gentle rhythmic therapy that tracts the skin, without sliding or losing contact along the superficial lymphatic pathways, with the aim of improving the reabsorption of edema through the uptake and evacuation of fluids.
Another technique for the treatment of hypertrophic scars is microdermabrasion, which consists in controlling a correct remodeling of the epithelial layer (a tissue that covers the free surfaces of the organism). CelluM6 can also reactivate the collagen bonds and produce a proliferation of elastin through mechanotraction of the skin.
7. Lymphedema:
It is a swelling of the limb caused by an accumulation of fluid in the interstitial space due to a malfunction of the lymphatic system. It is characterized as a chronic edema and presents as soft or hard (depending on the concentration of proteins it contains), elastic or fibrous and does not improve with elevation of the affected limb.
The most frequent causes of lymphedema are the removal of axillary nodes, the type of surgery, the pathological state of the nodes, the frequency and intensity of radiotherapy or chemotherapy and the inadequate use of recommendations.
Treatment
The objective is the reduction of the volume of the limb, reduction of conjunctival fibrosis, care of the skin and scars, prevention of aggravating factors, functional rehabilitation of the affected limb, pain control and personal, social and occupational reintegration of the patient.
The treatment of lymphedema is a set of different therapeutic alternatives that complement each other. IF decongestive therapy is a therapy that combines the application of DLM to the affected limb, alternating with CelluM6 treatment that makes a motorized and defibrosant drainage. Finally, compressive bandages and myolymphokinetic exercises can also be used.