Complications and physical therapeutic treatment after breast cancer surgery: a retrospective study

Abstract

After breast cancer surgery, women may develop some physical complications. Thus, the aims of this study were to investigate the outcome of these women, who participated in a rehabilitation program for one month, as well to identify along two years the most frequent complications and adopted physical therapy conducts. It was a descriptive and retrospective study with 707 medical records of women treated for breast cancer at the Women's Hospital Professor Doutor José Aristodemo Pinotti, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, between January 2006 and December 2007, admitted in the Division of Physical Therapy. Analysis was performed by means, standard deviation, absolute and relative frequencies. By the end of the program, 55% of women were discharged, 17% required additional treatment, and 26% did not join it. The most frequent complications were: pericicatricial adherence (26%), range of motion (ROM) restriction (24%), and scar dehiscence (17%). In the first year after surgery (n=460), the main complaints were: pain (28.5%), heaviness (21.5%), and restriction of shoulder range of motion (16.7%); in the second year (n=168), they were pain (48.2%), heaviness (42.8%), and lymphedema (23.2%). It was concluded that most women were discharged in the end of the program and, over the years, they presented reduction of shoulder range of motion frequency and lymphedema increase. Care of the arm, home exercises, and self-lymphatic drainage were the most adopted conducts.