Efeitos da imersão e da hidrocinesioterapia na reabilitação do linfedema

Resumo (EN)

Introduction – A significant increase in the volume of one or more body segments due to lymphatic system insufficiency is called lymphedema. Although there is no cure for lymphedema, it is conservatively treatable with an association of measures such as exercises, lymph drainage and the use of bandages. Material and Methods – A group of 9 patients suffering from lymphedema (6 unilateral and 3 bilateral) were submitted to two types of treatment, one was aerobic exercises in water and in the other the patients were requested to relax with the lower limbs immersed in the swimming pool. The lower limbs of the participants were evaluated by volume plethysmography (volumetry), immediately before and after the treatment sessions. For statistical analysis a two-tailed matched t-test was utilized with an alpha error of 5% considered statistically significant. Results – The results did not identify statistically significant differences between the two protocols, both for the normal limbs (p-value = 0.879) and those with lymphedema (p-value = 0.968). The exercise protocol, when comparing before and after, did not give significant differences for healthy limbs (p-value = 0.058) or legs with lymphedema (p-value = 0.220), however an analysis of the effects of resting with the legs immersed in water showed a significant difference for both healthy (p-value = 0.001) and lymphedemic (p-value = 0.000) limbs. Conclusion – The sample size used does not confirm that exercising in water has a positive or negative influence on limbs with lymphedema however a significant reduction of volume was seen with the immersion of both healthy limbs and those with lymphedema.