Surgical management of breast cancer-related lymphedema: a narrative review of contemporary practices.

ABSTRACT:

Background and objective

Breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) represents a colossal burden in terms of health and patient-reported outcomes. Surgical management plays a prominent role in the psychological and physical well-being of women suffering from BCRL. Therefore, we performed a narrative review of the current surgical management of BCRL and analyzed the postoperative results.

Methods

A literature search was conducted across PubMed MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science from database inception through January 2, 2023. We included English-written studies evaluating postoperative outcomes of lymphatic surgery for the management of BCRL.

Key content and findings

The surgical management of lymphedema can be classified into two approaches: (I) physiologic procedures a

SUBMITTER: Ciudad P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10777216 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature