String wrapping versus massage for reducing digital volume.

The purposes of this study were 1) to compare the relative effectiveness of two common methods of treating hand edema, retrograde massage and string wrapping, and 2) to compare these two methods with two techniques of combining them. Fifty-six digits of the hands of 14 subjects were studied. Because all of the subjects demonstrated generalized hand edema, comparisons of different digits of the same subject could be made on each visit. Effectiveness rankings of the treatment methods were made after each visit. A clear pattern of effectiveness emerged that suggested that superimposing massage on an already-wrapped digit was more effective than either massage or string wrapping alone. Average circumferential reductions of digits further supported the hypothesis that a combination of string wrapping and massage would be more effective than the individual string-wrapping or massage techniques. No significant difference in effectiveness was found between massage and string wrapping when used singularly.