Consideration of the Self-Care Supporting Program Including Simple Exercise for Patients with Early Stages of Secondary Lower-Limb Lymphedema

Abstract

Aim: We devised a self-care supporting program targeting patients with early stages of secondary lower-limb lymphedema. The program incorporates “Simple exercises to replace lymphatic drainage” based on lymphatic flow. The purpose of this study was to consider the feasibility of continuing this program. Methods: The participants were patients in the early stages of secondary lower-limb lymphedema after gynecological cancer surgery and lymphedema therapists with more than five years of experience. Patients continued self-care at home after being briefed on the program, and they were analyzed on their self-care continuity status one month later based on a self-administered questionnaire survey and self-care notes. We interviewed the lymphedema therapists about this program to discuss the feasibility of continuing it and obtain feedback. Results: The patients who participated in the study were six women who underwent surgery with lymph node dissection for gynecological cancer. The therapists were five nurses and one occupational therapist. The patient understood the importance of all items in the self-care. “Observation,” “Touching,” and “Skin care” were relatively easy to continue. “Lymph drainage” and “Exercise” were continued with “Simple exercises to replace lymphatic drainage”. “Other exercises” were able to continue by adding distance and time to daily activities. Furthermore, “Measurement” and “Recording” became a burden and were difficult to continue. Nonetheless, this program was generally approved by the lymphedema therapists. They also pointed out the content and format of the self-care notes as improvements. Conclusions: We found that the self-care supporting program that incorporated “Simple exercises to replace lymphatic drainage” might be feasible to continue self-care for patients with early stages of secondary lower-limb lymphedema. Furthermore, we found that we needed to improve the “Measurement” and “Recording” sections of this program.