What happened to my arm swelling after breast cancer surgery? How to treat it?

What happens if my arm is swollen after breast cancer surgery? How can I treat it?

After breast cancer surgery, arm swelling may be caused by lymphedema, or it may be unrelated to breast cancer and may be caused by trauma, overstrain, infection, etc.

1. Lymphedema:

After breast cancer surgery, arm swelling may be due to lymphedema caused by damage to the upper limb lymphatic vessels during the operation to clean the axillary lymph nodes. In this case, the patient can take drugs such as ceftriaxone tablets, penicillin V potassium tablets, and diosmin tablets under the guidance of a doctor.

2. Trauma or overstrain:

After the patient is hit by external force, it may cause congestion and swelling of bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments and other tissue structures, and also stimulate peripheral nerves, making arm pain symptoms more obvious, accompanied by arm swelling symptoms. In this case, the patient can use diclofenac diethylamine emulsion, Yunnan Baiyao aerosol and other drugs under the guidance of a doctor.

3. Infection:

If skin damage to the upper limbs after breast cancer surgery leads to retrograde bacterial infection, it will cause lymphatic network infection, manifested as erythema with clear boundaries, accompanied by symptoms such as swelling and pain in the upper limbs, causing swelling of the patient's arm. The patient can clean the wound with hydrogen peroxide and saline, then apply erythromycin ointment, mupirocin ointment, fusidic acid ointment, etc. around the wound and bandage the wound.

Scar contracture and other factors may also cause arm swelling after breast cancer surgery. Once the arm is swollen after breast cancer surgery, the patient needs to go to the hospital for examination in time to identify the cause and then carry out targeted treatment.