Efficacy of pneumatic compression and low-level laser therapy in the treatment of postmastectomy lymphoedema: A randomized controlled trial

PubMedID: 19164399Objective: To compare the long-term efficacy of pneumatic compression and low-level laser therapies in the management of postmastectomy lymphoedema. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: Departmentof Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of Cukurova University, Turkey. Subjects: Forty-seven patients with postmastectomy lymphoedema were enrolled in the study. Interventions: Patients were randomly allocated to pneumatic compression (group I, n = 24) and low-level laser (group II, n = 23) groups. Group I received 2 hours of compression therapy and group II received 20 minutes of laser therapy for four weeks. All patients were advised to perform daily limb exercises. Main measures: Demographic features, difference between sum of the circumferences of affected and unaffected limbs (?C), pain with visual analogue scale and grip strength were recorded. Results: Mean age of the patients was 48.3 (10.4) years. ?C decreased significantly at one, three and six months within both groups, and the decrease was still significant at month 12 only in group II (P = 0.004). Improvement of group II was greater than that of group I post treatment (P = 0.04) and at month 12 after 12 months (P = 0.02). Pain was significantly reduced in group I only at posttreatment evaluation, whereas in group II it was significant post treatment and at follow-up visits. No significant difference was detected in pain scores between the two groups. Grip strength was improved in both groups, but the differences between groups were not significant. Conclusions: Patients in both groups improved after the interventions. Group II had better long-term results than group I. Low-level laser might be a useful modality in the treatment of postmastectomy lymphoedema. © 2009 Sage Publications