Dietary considerations for fluid accumulation after breast cancer surgery

Breast cancer should be very familiar to women nowadays, because there are many women around us who suffer from this disease. For patients with breast cancer, it is very important to treat breast cancer, and it is also very important to treat breast cancer after treatment. Because there will be some complications after breast cancer surgery. So what are the complications after breast cancer surgery? At the same time, we will tell you the dietary precautions after breast cancer surgery. If you don't know, come and have a look.

Complications after breast cancer surgery

For cancer treatment, there will be some complications after treatment. So what complications will occur after breast cancer surgery? Let's take a look at them together.

1. Postoperative infection

If the dressing is not changed properly and care is not taken after breast cancer surgery, the wound will become infected. This is also an important cause of upper limb swelling, and necrosis and infection of the flap edge can be seen. Axillary effusion lasts too long or drainage is repeatedly poor. Therefore, factors that are not conducive to wound healing should be removed after surgery, and sufficient antibiotics should also be given to control infection.

Bleeding

Bleeding after breast cancer surgery is a common complication, which is usually seen after lumpectomy or radical resection. The causes of bleeding are often: incomplete hemostasis during surgery, leaving active bleeding points, continuous negative pressure drainage after surgery, changes in body position or severe coughing, which causes the electrocoagulated blood clot to fall off or the ligature to slip, resulting in drainage bleeding.

reason

1. Bleeding may be caused by incomplete hemostasis during surgery.

2. Continuous negative pressure drainage is used after surgery.

3. The use of chemotherapy or hormone drugs before surgery makes the wound prone to bleeding.

3. Subcutaneous effusion

There are many causes for this complication, so patients need to strengthen their understanding of authoritative experts. There are many treatments for breast cancer, but if you choose surgical treatment, the cavity left behind by the movement of the flap and the obstruction of subcutaneous exudate drainage can be prevented by continuous negative pressure drainage of the wound and good fixation of the flap.

reason

1. Poor drainage prevents the exudate from the wound from being drained out in time and causes it to accumulate.

2. The blood in the wound coagulates to form a blood clot, which cannot be drained out and then liquefies to form effusion.

4. Skin flap necrosis

It is the most common complication after breast cancer surgery. In mild cases, it will only cause necrosis of the edge of the skin flap, which is not large in scope and will not affect wound healing. In cases with a large necrosis, the necrotic part should be cut off in time, the wound should be cleaned and the dressing should be changed, and the wound surface should be prepared before skin grafting to facilitate early skin grafting.

5. Upper limb edema

After radical mastectomy, upper limb edema is likely to occur due to obstruction of lymphatic and blood return in the upper limbs. The incidence of upper limb edema varies from 5% to 40% according to various reports. The incidence of severe upper limb edema has significantly decreased to less than 5%.

reason

1. Improper axillary clearance destroys local collateral circulation. In the past, the axillary sheath was often removed during the dissection of lymphatic fat around the axillary vein, which also affected the postoperative lymphatic return. Therefore, if there is no obvious enlarged lymph node during surgery, it is not necessary to remove the axillary vascular sheath. In fact, if there is an enlarged lymph node in the axilla that invades the axillary sheath, it is often impossible to completely achieve the purpose of radical cure by surgery.

2. There is fluid accumulation or infection in the axillary area, causing local congestion and fibrotic scar formation, which hinders the establishment of collateral circulation.

3. Postoperative radiotherapy to the supraclavicular, infraclavicular and axillary regions causes local edema, connective tissue hyperplasia, and local fibrosis, which in turn causes edema.

Dietary considerations for breast cancer patients after surgery

Speaking of diet, this is a very important thing for breast cancer patients after surgery. Because a good diet can help the patient recover, while a bad diet will cause the patient's condition to worsen. So what should breast cancer patients pay attention to in their diet after surgery?

1. Nutrition should be adequate

Breast cancer patients are generally weak. During chemotherapy, they should increase their protein and sugar intake appropriately, eat less high-fat and high-cholesterol foods, especially protein intake, eat more lean pork, beef, chicken or fish, avoid fried foods, eat less salted foods, and strictly prohibit the consumption of irritating condiments. Pay attention to the variety of diet, the combination of meat and vegetables, acid-base balance, and pay attention to the color, aroma and taste of food. Anorexic patients can eat some hawthorn, radish, kumquat and other stomach-strengthening foods to increase their appetite.

2. Eat more foods rich in anti-cancer ingredients

The following are several types of food that have certain preventive and therapeutic effects on breast cancer patients.

A. Cabbage, Chinese cabbage, kale, etc. contain the anti-cancer substance indole-3-carbinol, which can prevent carcinogens in the body from inducing tumor cells and inhibit tumor growth.

B. Garlic, onion, etc. contain allicin, which can block the synthesis of nitrosamines. They also contain vitamin C, vitamin A and other ingredients, which can play an anti-cancer role.

C. Tofu, soy milk, bean sprouts and other bean products are rich in phytoestrogens, which can competitively inhibit the effects of estrogen in the body and play an anti-cancer role.

D. Asparagus contains histones, which have been shown to effectively control the growth of breast cancer cells.

In addition, foods such as kelp, seaweed, and tomatoes contain anti-cancer ingredients, and regular consumption has certain benefits for breast cancer patients.

3. Eat some fresh fruits appropriately

For example, watermelon, kiwi, apricot, apple, pear, strawberry, etc. are rich in vitamin C, vitamin B and other substances, which have certain anti-cancer effects. Moreover, jujube not only contains hawthorn acid and other anti-cancer ingredients, but also has a therapeutic effect on the decrease of cystic cells and thrombocytopenia caused by chemotherapy. Therefore, breast cancer patients can often eat jujube during chemotherapy.

4. Reasonably arrange the time of diet and chemotherapy

On the day of chemotherapy, the diet should be light and delicious; intravenous chemotherapy is performed on an empty stomach, so you should eat 3 hours before chemotherapy, when the food has been basically digested and emptied. After chemotherapy, eat dinner later to reduce nausea and vomiting. When taking oral chemotherapy drugs, it is better to take them half an hour after a meal. When the blood drug concentration reaches its peak, the patient is already in an empty stomach, and the digestive tract reaction will be lighter. When vomiting during chemotherapy, you can hold ginger slices in your mouth, which is helpful for stopping vomiting.