[Diagnosis of lymphedema].

“Edema” is only symptom of a disease, so edema treatment is only treating the symptoms. Therefore the aim of a step-by-step diagnostic approach is to determine the cause and severity of the lymphedema, as well as to distinguish the lymphedema from other edema-associated diseases. “Lymphedema” is a genuine disease, so lymphedema treatment is causal disease treatment! Due to improved diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities and not least by a growing majority of patients with their demand for adequate therapy, also the physicians awareness of lymphatic diseases has increased. Nevertheless, there is still a clear deficit in the knowledge of the very simple diagnostic steps to confirm the diagnosis and also of the appropriate stage-related treatment of lymphedema.