Lymphoedema-Lipoedema: Diagnosis and Therapy. A guide for those affected


Franz Joseph Schingale (GER)
ww.lympho-opt.de

According to conservative estimates, about three million people in Germany suffer from some disease of the lymphatic system.
Most patients have learnt details about the disease and the appropriate modes of treatment inadvertently from therapists or self-help groups.

Some patients are fobbed off by empty assurances that lymphoedema is a normal complication following a malignant disease, and that it is undoubtedly better to have been cured of the malignant condition, though lymphoedema may have to be accepted as part of the price.

Throughout the entire course of medical studies, little attention is devoted to the diseases of the lymphatic system, and consequently students and doctors have little acquaintance with the problems of lymphoedema. Because of the increasing numbers of surgical operations, the incidence of lymphoedema has certainly increased, but improvements in treatment and refined therapeutic techniques have done much to lessen the burden of the disease. Furthermore, thanks to modern surgical methods, it is now possible to operate upon patients who would formerly have been considered unsuitable for surgery, in particular in cases of recurrence of cancer.

Although a great deal is known about the origins of lymphoedema, those affected are in general given too little information to help them in their daily lives, and in particular in their holidays and leisure time.

It is obviously not well enough known that chronic lymph stagnation, left untreated for a period of up to 18 years, can lead to one of the most malignant neoplasms, angiosarcoma (Stewart-Treves syndrome).

In my book I have attempted to set out the facts as clearly as possible and to explain them for those affected.

All the illustrations of patients published in this booklet were photographed in the Lympho-OptTM specialist clinic for lymphology in Pommelsbrunn-Hohenstadt.

The general treatment of lymphoedema takes place in two phases:

phase 1 = phase of reduction

• hygiene

• manual drainage

• bandaging

• gymnastics

phase 2 = permanent phase

hygiene
manual drainage
medical stockings
gymnastics

The phase 1 in our clinic exists in following steps

• hygiene

• manual therapy in combination with

– pneumo presso therapy

– underwater treatment, infrared cabin

– soft laser, electrostatical field, pulsed magnetic field

– reduction diet

– sometimes Ozon and CO2 gas therapy

• bandaging

• gymnastics, therapeutical dancing

• terraintraining in the Nordic walking way

• and if necessary reduction diet

The Lympho-Opt clinic is a private clinic in Germany with a contract with the German Krankenkasse, foreign patients from the EU are allowed to come to our clinic with the

formular E 112.



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