Lymphedema: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment

What is Lymphedema?

Lymphedema is a term used to describe tissue swelling resulting from an accumulation of protein-rich fluid, typically discharged through the body's lymphatic system. It typically affects the arms or legs, although it can also affect the genitalia, chest wall, belly, and neck.

Your lymphatic system is crucially dependent on your lymph nodes. Cancer treatments that harm or remove your lymph nodes might result in lymphedema. Lymphedema can be brought on by any issue that prevents the lymph fluid from draining.

The ability to move the affected limb may be compromised by severe lymphedema, which also raises the risk of sepsis and skin infections as well as causing skin alterations and disintegration. Compression stockings, massage, sequential pneumatic pumping, attentive skin care, compression bandages, and, rarely, surgery to remove swollen tissue or build new drainage pathways are all possible forms of treatment.

Causes of Lymphedema

A network of vessels called the lymphatic system circulates lymph fluid, which is rich in proteins, throughout the body. It is a component of the immune system. Filtering lymph nodes have cells that fight cancer and infection.

As you go about your daily activities, your muscles contract, pushing the lymph fluid through the lymph vessels along with tiny pumps built into the lymph vessels' walls. Lymphedema develops When the lymph veins cannot sufficiently discharge lymph fluid from an arm or leg.

The following are the most typical causes of lymphedema:

• Cancer. Lymphedema could develop if cancer cells obstruct lymphatic veins. For instance, a tumor that is developing close to a lymph node or lymph vessel may swell to the point where it obstructs the flow of lymph fluid.
• Cancer radiation therapy. Radiation can result in lymph node or lymph vessel scarring and inflammation.
• Surgery. To determine whether the cancer has spread, lymph nodes are frequently removed during cancer surgery. However, lymphedema is not necessarily the end effect of this.
• Parasites. The most frequent cause of lymphedema in tropical developing nations is an infection with worms that clog the lymph nodes.

Less frequently, hereditary diseases where the lymphatic system doesn't develop properly cause lymphedema.

 Symptoms of Lymphedema

Lymphedema symptoms and signs include:

• An overall or partial arm, leg, finger, or toe swelling
• A feeling of heaviness
• Restriction of motion
• Ongoing infections
• Fibrosis or the thickening and hardening of the skin

If you have lymphedema, your symptoms can range from mild to severe. Lymphedema caused by cancer could not become apparent for months or even years following therapy.