Vacations and heat waves: a difficult period for patients suffering from lymphedema. Indeed, they cannot always ensure the continuity of their care because of their displacement to their vacation destination, or the summer closure of their physiotherapy practice.
In the absence of regular manual lymphatic drainage, how can they relieve their symptoms, sometimes increased by the heat?

Lymphedema: 5 good reflexes to advise

Here are some habits and gestures to advise patients not only in summer, but also between two manual lymphatic drainage sessions at the practice, in order to allow them to better manage their pathology on a daily basis:

• Wear medical compression: compression sleeves or stockings
• Use self-bandages – only after a formation by the physiotherapist
• Apply manual pressure to the edema by going up the affected limb
• Physical activity while wearing a compression sleeve or stocking
• Regularly use a pressure therapy device with a massage boot or sleeve

Pressotherapy, often unknown to patients, generates a powerful mobilization that stimulates venous and lymphatic circulation and allows lymphedema to be drained. It thus potentiates the effect of manual lymphatic drainage by a physiotherapist and the wearing of compression garments.

We provide health professionals with a Guide to the right gestures to pass on to their patients so that they can spend a more serene summer, while waiting to visit their usual practitioner.