The Effect of Manual Lymphatic Drainage on the Stress and Pain in Patient with Postoperative Breast Cancer

Objective: This study was at investigated the effects of manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) on stress and pain in patients withpostoperative breast cancer. Design: A randomized controlled trial. Methods: A total of twenty-two patients with postoperative breast cancer voluntarily participated in the study. Subjects were randomly assigned to the MLD groups (n=12) and rest groups (n=12). The intervention was conducted in each group for twentyminutes a day, five times a week, for four weeks. Before and after the intervention, the participants measured sympathetic nerve,parasympathetic nerve, and pain by using a sphygmograph and short-form McGill pain questionnaire.An independent t-test was used to analyze pretest and posttest changes between the groups, a paired t-test was used to analyze pre-posttests within eachgroup. Results: After analyzing, the MLD group has been shown a significant decrease in the sympathetic nervous system (p<0.05), a significant increase in the parasympathetic nervous system (p<0.05), and a significant increase in pain (p<0.05). However, therest group was no significant difference between pre and post. Conclusions: The results of this study confirmed that MLD techniques are an effective method in reducing stress and pain inpatients with postoperativebreast cancer. And it is thought that can be used as basic data and to develop programs on stress andpain management reduction for patients with breast cancer.