Safety and tolerability of Kinesio® Taping in patients with arm lymphedema: medical device clinical study

• Published in: Supportive care in cancer Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 1119 - 1124
• Main Authors: Martins, Jacqueline de Carvalho, Aguiar, Suzana Sales, Fabro, Erica Alves Nogueira, Costa, Rejane Medeiros, Lemos, Thiago Vilela, de Sá, Vinicius Gienbinsky Guapyassú, de Abreu, Raphael Mello, Andrade, Mauro Figueiredo Carvalho de, Thuler, Luiz Claudio Santos, Bergmann, Anke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-03-2016
• Subjects: Adult; Arm - abnormalities; Arm - pathology; Bandages - utilization; Breast Neoplasms - complications; Female; Humans; Lymphedema - therapy; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Nursing; Nursing Research; Oncology; Original Article; Pain Medicine; Physical Therapy Modalities - utilization; Rehabilitation Medicine; Kinesio Taping; Breast cancer; Bandage; Lymphedema; Physiotherapy
• ISSN: 0941-4355; 1433-7339
• DOI: 10.1007/s00520-015-2874-7

Purpose
The aim of this study is to assess the safety and tolerability of Kinesio
®
Taping (KT) in patients with arm lymphedema.
Method
Medical device clinical study in women with arm lymphedema. Kinesio
®
Tex Gold bandage was applied by the KT technique. Assessments and interviews were carried out both at the beginning and 4 days after intervention. Skin disorders, reported tolerance and modification of limb volume and function after intervention were assessed. Changes in limb volume and functionality before and after intervention were compared by the Student’s
t
test and the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test, considering significant
p
value <0.05.
Results
Twenty-four women were studied. After intervention, no patient had cutaneous lesions, vesicle or limb hyperthermia, and 4.2 % presented skin peeling and redness. Most patients reported no change in social life and that they felt safer in the daily activity and were very pleased with the treatment. The patients presented improvement of upper limb functionality after intervention (
p
 < 0.001). No difference of limb volume was found after intervention (
p
 = 0.639).
Conclusions
Kinesio
®
Tex Gold bandage by the KT technique proved to be safe and tolerable in patients with lymphedema, with improved functionality and no change of the affected limb volume.