Lymphoedema post-mastectomy: is elevation alone an effective treatment?

In an attempt to obtain information about the efficacy of arm elevation on the reduction of lymphoedema following mastectomy, a study on 33 patients was carried out in which both the control, contralateral and lymphoedematous arms were elevated for periods of 1 and 5 h. There were statistically significant (p < 0.05) reductions in the volumes of the control and lymphoedematous arms after 1 and 5 h of elevation. After 1 h of elevation, significantly more fluid was removed from the control arm (2.7%) than the lymphoedematous one (1.3%). At 5 h there was no significant difference in the volume of fluid removed from the control arm (3.3%) compared with the lymphoedematous one (3.1%).