Detection of postoperative lymphoedema in patients with breast cancer]

Lymphoedema is a severe postoperative complication after treatment of many malignancies. It is a pathological accumulation of extracellular water (ECW). Early diagnostic tool is needed. Multifrequency bioimpedance analysis (MFBIA) is a method for detection of changes in ECW.Prospective study.Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the 2nd Medical Faculty, Charles University, Prague.We measured a control group of 72 women and a group of 74 patients undergoing a breast cancer surgery during 18 month after the surgery by MFBIA and circumferency. Characteristics of the patients were recorded. The detection of lymphoedema was done using MFBIA, circumferency measurement and upon the symptoms of the patients.The average age in the controll and tested group was 40,1 and 58,9 years. The average size of the tumour, grade and positivity if oestrogen receptors was 15,1 mm, 2,04 and 43%. In 23 patients (21%) complete lymphadenectomy was performed, in 51 patients (79%) a detection of sentinel lymph node was performed. Lymphoedema was detected in 8 women (11%). In these patients MFBIA detected lymphoedema 9 month earlier in total than other methods.MFBIA is a low-cost and precise method for the detection od early stage postoperative lymphoedema. We recommend to incorporate MFBIA into standard dispensatory plan of every patient combined with circumferency measurement.