Breast cancer patients' experiences of lymphoedema

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore employed women's experiences of light or moderate arm lymphoedema following breast cancer treatment in order to gain a deeper understanding of this phenomenon. Twelve women took part in a semistructured interview. A qualitative method with a phenomenological approach was applied to analyse data. In order to integrate the experiences in the everyday life of the women, a critical incident method was used. The findings indicate that there are many different practical and psychosocial problems related to arm lymphoedema. Three main themes were common to all the women. These themes were: (i) Attitudes from people in their surroundings, including reactions to the problem from other people and reactions from the women on the attitudes of other people. (ii) Discovery and understanding of oedema as a chronic disease and its treatment. (iii) Coping, including both problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies. The problems integrated in daily life were of low frequency but of considerable importance to the women. In conclusion, it is of great importance that health care professionals should be aware of and have knowledge about these problems. The women's needs for expressing their experiences of arm lymphoedema may be encouraged at the time of discovery and then regularly as long as the women seek care. Efforts may be made to strengthen the women's coping skills, eventually in a multidisciplinary approach. The interaction skills of health care professionals are probably of great importance in strengthening the resources of the women leading to a positive outcome.

Psychologic and social sequelae of secondary lymphedema

“…Similarly, Hare's study 49 demonstrated high quality especially in her reporting of analysis and results. Likewise, Johansson et al 30 adequately achieved the criteria. Radina and Armer 50 strongly established the significance of their study question.…”

“…Of the four qualitative studies, two 30,48 utilized a phenomenologic approach, semistructured interviews, and directed questions to elicit specific concerns and to promote understanding of women with SLE. Hare 49 used data gathered from audio recordings of four focus groups, and analyzed the data using a grounded theory approach.…”

“…49 Depression and maladaptive coping were exacerbated by participant's difficulty with adjusting to a chronic disease and this impacted both problem and emotion-focused coping. 30 …”

“…However, lack of consensus occurs regarding which risk factors contribute consistently to SLE. 8,14,24 Other factors that may increase the risk for developing SLE are body mass index (BMI), 14,29,30 dominant arm, 31,32 age, 33 weight gain/obesity, 5,11,13,29,33 staging, 10,34 number of lymph nodes removed, 29 medical therapies, 35,36 and infection. 10,13 …”

Study of Incidence of Lymphedema in Indian Patients Undergoing Axillary Dissection for Breast Cancer

“…Impact of lymphedema to patients' physical and psychological health can be enormous, with long lasting and often permanent sequelae to their quality of life [19,20].…”