Postoperative rehabilitation exercises for breast cancer

Cancer patients need a period of recovery and treatment after surgery. The treatment methods for different cancers are also different. The special situation after breast cancer surgery requires some special rehabilitation measures, which mainly include two aspects. Let's take a look at the following introduction.

Shoulder joint function exercises

During radical surgery for breast cancer, the pectoralis major and minor muscles are often removed together with the breast, and the axillary lymph nodes are dissected at the same time. Therefore, shoulder dysfunction may occur after surgery. In order to reduce or avoid this dysfunction, passive shoulder movement should generally begin on the first or second day after surgery. At the beginning, the abduction and flexion angles should not exceed 40°. From the fourth day after surgery, the flexion can be increased by 10° to 15°, but it cannot exceed the patient's tolerance. After the stitches are removed two weeks after surgery, daily life such as eating, washing face, brushing teeth, combing hair, etc. should be taken care of by oneself as soon as possible to improve their mobility.

Prevention and treatment of upper limb lymphedema

About 50% of patients will develop upper limb lymphedema. It is necessary to avoid intravenous injection, infusion or blood pressure measurement on the upper limb on the surgical side. Always pay attention to raising the affected limb, climbing the wall, and strengthening the activity of the affected limb, especially the activity of the fingers, to promote circulation. If the edema is obvious, the patient will adopt a low-salt diet to reduce water retention as much as possible. If necessary, you can consider using a small dose of diuretics. Centripetal massage of the affected limb or sequential airbag pressurization can effectively reduce edema. However, edema that occurs several months after surgery is often persistent or intermittent. Patients should be encouraged to do more upper limb activities, which may improve circulation and reduce edema.

Precautions

I would like to remind everyone that in addition to doing the above rehabilitation exercises, everyone should also adjust their mentality, believe in the power of modern science, and strengthen their confidence in fighting cancer. Only in this way can we fight breast cancer to the end!