Andersen L, Hojris I, Erlandsen M, Andersen J.
Treatment of breast-cancer-related lymphedema with or without manual
lymphatic drainage--a randomized study.
Acta Oncol. 2000;39(3):399-405.

Department of Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark.
A prospective randomized study was carried out to investigate whether the
addition of manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) to the standard therapy
could improve treatment outcome in women with lymphedema of the
ipsilateral arm after breast cancer treatment. Forty-two patients
were randomly assigned to receive standard therapy or standard
therapy plus MLD 8 times in 2 weeks and training in
self-massage. The standard therapy consisted of use of a compression
garment, exercises and information about lymphedema and skin care. The
efficacy of treatment was evaluated by reduction in lymphedema volume during
treatment and by improvement in symptoms potentially related to
lymphedema. The patients were followed-up for a total of 12 months.
The study showed that both groups obtained a significant
reduction in edema and that MLD did not contribute significantly to reduce edema volume.