Acute Cardiovascular Responses to the Application of Manual Lymphatic Drainage in Different Body Regions

Murat Esmer, MSc,1 Ilke Keser, PhD,1 Dilek Erer, MD,2 and Buse Kupeli, MSc1. Lymphatic Research Biology 2018

Click to read the abstract

Acute Cardiovascular Responses to the Application of Manual Lymphatic Drainage in Different Body Regions

Murat Esmer, MSc,1 Ilke Keser, PhD,1 Dilek Erer, MD,2 and Buse Kupeli, MSc1. Lymphatic Research Biology 2018

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate acute cardiovascular responses to manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) on different parts of the body.

Materials and Methods: Thirty healthy individuals (10 women and 20 men) participated in the study voluntarily. Heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), respiration frequency, and oxygen saturation were measured before and after MLD was applied to different regions of the body (neck, abdomen, anastomosis, arm, and leg). HR, SBP, and DBP were measured with a sphygmomanometer (OMRON, USA) and oxygen saturation was measured with a pulse oximeter.

Results: Increase in DBP was seen after abdominal drainage (p=0.038); reduction in SBP (p=0.002) and DBP (p=0.004) after neck drainage; reduction in SBP (p<0.001) and HR (p=0.004) after arm drainage; and reduction in SBP and DBP after leg drainage. There was no change in the oxygen saturation levels of participants after MLD (p>0.05).

Conclusions: In healthy subjects, the effects of MLD were found to vary according to the region of application. This study signals that the cardiovascular effects of MLD treatment vary in different regions of the body.

Main findings

  • The aim of this study was to determine the acute cardiovascular responses to the application of MLD in different body regions.
  • It is known that patients with lymphedema may have some other comorbid conditions, such as hypertension, and heart and kidney diseases. When MLD treatment is given to patients with lymphedema and chronic venous insufficiency, the cardiac responses may have a critical role. This is the first study to examine for each region of the body the acute physiological/hemodynamic changes brought by the application of MLD.
  • This study reports that MLD practice caused different hemodynamic responses according to body region in a sample of 30 healthy individuals. The results show a decrease in SBP after neck, abdominal, and leg MLD and lower HRs after arm drainage. DBP values decreased after neck and leg MLD and showed an increase after abdominal MLD. These findings support further investigation of the roles of the circulatory system, nervous system, hormonal system, and kidneys to better in form the practice of MLD and our understanding of its effects.
  • Limitations:

(1) The cardiovascular changes seen during MLD can be observed by other more technologically advanced devices.

(2) The number of participants was limited to a small group of healthy university students who took part voluntarily. Further studies with more data can better explain the results. In patient groups with different diseases, the cardiovascular responses to MLD may be more dramatic, so if they can be observed, it would be helpful in determining indication and contraindication for each part of the body.