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

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the M. Muller Ltda for donating the bandage necessary for this research.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rehabilitation Sciences Master’s Program, Augusto Motta University Center, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Jacqueline de Carvalho Martins

  2. Clinical Epidemiology Program, National Cancer Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Suzana Sales Aguiar & Luiz Claudio Santos Thuler

  3. Physiotherapy Service, Cancer Hospital III, National Cancer Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Erica Alves Nogueira Fabro & Rejane Medeiros Costa

  4. Brasilia University, Universidade de Goiás, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Thiago Vilela Lemos

  5. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Vinicius Gienbinsky Guapyassú de Sá & Raphael Mello de Abreu

  6. Medicine School, São Paulo University, São Paulo, Brazil

    Mauro Figueiredo Carvalho de Andrade

  7. Clinical Epidemiology Program, National Cancer Institute, Rua André Cavalcanti, 37 / 2o andar - Centro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 20231-050, Brazil

    Anke Bergmann

Authors
  1. Jacqueline de Carvalho Martins
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  2. Suzana Sales Aguiar
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  3. Erica Alves Nogueira Fabro
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  4. Rejane Medeiros Costa
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  5. Thiago Vilela Lemos
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  6. Vinicius Gienbinsky Guapyassú de Sá
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  7. Raphael Mello de Abreu
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  8. Mauro Figueiredo Carvalho de Andrade
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  9. Luiz Claudio Santos Thuler
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  10. Anke Bergmann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anke Bergmann.

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Martins, J., Aguiar, S.S., Fabro, E.A.N. et al. Safety and tolerability of Kinesio® Taping in patients with arm lymphedema: medical device clinical study. Support Care Cancer 24, 1119–1124 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-015-2874-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-015-2874-7

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