OBJECTIVE We sought to determine the risk of lymphedema associated with immediate breast reconstruction compared to mastectomy alone. BACKGROUND Immediate breast reconstruction is increasingly performed at the time of mastectomy. Few studies have examined whether breast reconstruction impacts development of lymphedema. METHODS A total of 616 patients with breast cancer who underwent 891 mas...

Purpose: To present a patient with bilateral severe and symmetric lower lid lymphedema in the setting of previous neck surgery and chronic psoriasis, and to review the potential relationships of neck surgery, irradiation, psoriasis, and rosacea to chronic lymphedema. Design: Single case report with literature review. Methods: A 60-year-old female with long-standing psoriasis presented with a 2-...

BACKGROUND Breast cancer-related lymphedema affects multiple aspects of patients' daily lives. The main aim of this study was to assess the impact of vascularized lymph node transfer on the quality of life in patients with lymphedema. METHODS Between 2007 and 2012, 25 female patients with breast cancer-related lymphedema underwent vascularized lymph node transfer. In 22 cases, the patients un...

INTRODUCTION Lymphedema is a chronic disorder that occurs commonly after lymph node removal for cancer treatment and is characterized by swelling, fibrosis, inflammation, and adipose deposition. Although previous histological studies have investigated inflammatory changes that occur in lymphedema, the precise cellular make up of the inflammatory infiltrate remains unknown. It is also unclear if...

Current treatment of unilateral breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) is only directed to the afflicted arm. Near-infrared fluorescent imaging (NIRF) of arm lymphatic vessel architecture and function in BCRL and control subjects revealed a trend of increased lymphatic abnormalities in both the afflicted and unafflicted arms with increasing time after lymphedema onset. These pilot results show...

Using fluorescent microlymphography, we examined the morphology andfunctional characteristics of the microlymph-vascular network in 36 subjects including 9 patients with "compressible" lymphedema (Group I), 14 with minimally compressible lymphedema (Group II), 9 with noncompressible lymphedema (Group III), and 4 healthy individuals. As lymphedema progressedfrom early to advanced stages (Group I...

1. Cheng MH, Huang JJ, Wu CW et al. The mechanism of vascularized lymph node transfer for lymphedema: natural lymphaticovenous drainage. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2014; 133(2): 192e–8e. 2. Ciudad P, Maruccia M, Socas J, et al. The laparoscopic right gastroepiploic lymph node flap transfer for upper and lower limb lymphedema: technique and outcomes. Microsurgery. 2015.doi: 10.1002/micr.22450 3. Socas...

RESULTS: A total of 315 patients were identified, of which 34.3% underwent lumpectomy, 17.1% underwent mastectomy alone, while 48.6% underwent mastectomy and reconstruction. Lymphedema was diagnosed in 9.2% (n=19) of mastectomy patients and 27.8% (n=30) of lumpectomy patients. Removing >10 nodes in the both the mastectomy (OR=11.4, p=.000) and lumpectomy (OR=5.51, p=.034) cohort was predictive ...

Breast cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer diagnosed in American women each year. Lymphedema is a possible complication following breast cancer treatments such as radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery due to the potential damage to the lymphatic system with these treatments. Breast cancerrelated lymphedema is an atypical chronic inflammation to the upper extremities resulting from a...

The lymphedema service in Glasgow has been treating patients with lymphedema of all causes since 1991. In the past five years 3 patients with primary lymphedema have been diagnosed with myelodysplasia (leading to acute leukemia) or acute leukemia. These are relatively unusual malignancies given the ages of the patients and all three of these patients died within an average of 12 months of diagn...