Development of nursing intervention program for the patients with lymphedema - on the basis of the scientific evidence -

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The primary purpose of the present study was twofold: (a) to elucidate the kinetics properties of lymph in vivo: and (b) to examine the effects of complete decongestive therapy (CDT) on the limb lymphedema. A secondary purpose was to develop effective nursing interventions for lymphedema patients, on the basis of the results obtained from (a) and (b).The study was conducted with two approaches. One of them was the experiment using lymphedema model rats and the other was experiment focusing on the lymphedema patients. ICG-PDE system was used for the rats and MR images for the patients. In both experiments, CDT was performed. Lymph did not distribute uniformly, but located eccentrically within the interstitial tissue of the affected extremity. The beneficial effects of CDT were demonstrated in both experiments. In addition, the rat experiment showed the occurrence of the new collateral pathway. From these findings, new nursing intervention program was considered.