Authors (including presenting author) :
Liu KC, Lo WY, Law WS, Chan CN, Lee WY, Leung KM, Liu YM, Leung YY
Affiliation :
Physiotherapy Department, Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH)
Introduction :
Kinesio Taping (KT) has long been widely use in musculoskeletal field for swelling control and application aiming lymphoedema control has also emerged in the recent years. KT can cover the disadvantages of compression therapy and may act as alternative or complementary treatment to treat this problem. Trial of KT application to cancer patients with significant LL lymphoedema has been started in PMH since Jan 2018 as a pilot project. This paper is an evaluation for this project.
Objectives :
The objectives of this evaluation were: 1) to evaluate the effectiveness of KT in reducing LL lymphoedema for cancer patients 2) to provide insights for the implementation of use of KT as one of the physiotherapy modalities to manage LL lymphoedema for cancer patients and hence improve their quality of life in the future.
Methodology :
From Jan 2018 to Dec 2018, KT has been applied to patients 1) who were admitted to PMH oncology ward. 2) whose LL were not paralyzed. 3) who were conscious and cooperative 4) who had the symptom of LL lymphoedema. 5) whose LL were free from open wound and deep vein thrombosis. The application of KT to reduce LL lymphoedema was based on the channeling concept of KT. Fan-shaped tape was applied on the LL with 0 to 20% tension with the direction of recoil from more congested area to less congested area. After the application, circumferences around anatomical landmarks including 1) foot arch to proximal base of metatarsal, 2) calcaneal process to tarsal bones, 3) 10cm proximal to lateral malleolus (LM), 4) 20cm proximal to LM, 5) 30cm proximal to LM, of the patients were measured and recorded. The pre-intervention data were taken on the day of application. The first and second post-intervention measurement data were taken during the next two physiotherapy follow up sessions respectively (remarks: daily physiotherapy service was provided to in-patients in working days in oncology wards of PMH). Data collected was analyzed and the following outcomes were calculated: 1) the average change in circumference around each anatomical landmark. 2) percentage of patients with reduced circumference around each anatomical landmark. 3) the average change in the mean value of the five circumferences. 4) % of patients with reduction in mean value of the five circumferences.
Result & Outcome :
There were a total of 46 subjects reviewed. All of them have the first and 34 of them have the second post-intervention measurement data. In average, the mean values of the limb circumferences of all subjects reduced by 0.3 cm and 0.4 cm after the first and second physiotherapy follow up session respectively. Among all subjects, 69.57% and 55.88% of them have improvement in limbs circumference after the first and second physiotherapy follow up sessions respectively.
Co-location with:
