Breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) is a debilitating, usually lifelong burden for breast cancer survivors. For the breast cancer patients receiving axillary lymph node dissection (ALND), the likelihood of BCRL is about 20%. Lymphatico-venous anastomosis (LVA) has been accepted as a method of treating extremity lymphedema. A few studies have mentioned the prophylactic effect of LVA on BCRL. However, there is still lack of a large-scale randomized controlled trial to corroborate its efficacy. Therefore, the goal of this study is to conduct a prospective randomized controlled trial to evaluate if immediate lymphatic reconstruction (ILR) with LVA could have a clinically significant effect on the reduction of BCRL occurrence.
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Arm lymphedema
Timeframe: Two years