Rehabilitation protocol in upper limb lymphedema.

Edema of the upper limb is, frequently, very invalidating. The physical treatment for edema of the upper limb consists on a combination of different therapies: manual lymphatic drainage (MLD), intermittent sequential pressotherapy (IPP) with a very low intensity, multilayer bandages (MLB), and compression sleeves. Patients are not hospitalized. In the first step of physical treatment, the patients are treated daily during 2 or 3 weeks with different therapies (MLD, IPP and MLB). During the second step, bandages are no more used. The compression garments are applied after this 2 or 3 weeks period. The physical treatment consist now in: manual lynphatic drainage and intermittent sequential pressotherapy (with low intensity). The frequency of the physical treatment is progressively decreased.