Team's imaging strategy enhances lipedema treatment (Physical therapy greatly reduced pain)

Medical Xpress / Vanderbilt University / Lymphatic Research and Biology ^ | Feb 17, 2023 | Bill Snyder / Paula M.C. Donahue et al

[ConservativeMind]

A unique collaboration is transforming the diagnosis and treatment of lipedema, a debilitating, abnormal deposition of fatty tissue that afflicts an estimated 17 million women in the United States.

Lipedema is often mistaken for obesity, yet it does not respond to diet or exercise. In women, the accumulation of fat occurs mainly in the legs, causing them "a lot of pain and difficulty with their daily activities," said Aaron Aday, MD, MSc.

Lipedema is a disorder of the lymphatic system, which plays a major role in removing excess water (edema) from body tissues.

Sodium (salt) plays a major role in regulating blood pressure and fluid volume.

The manual techniques used in therapy include manual lymphatic drainage massage, myofascial and soft tissue releases to relax contracted muscles and surrounding connective tissues, along with use of graded negative pressure to expand and stretch tissue—all of which can improve lymphatic circulation.

Working with Crescenzi's team, they have shown that pain relief and improved function experienced by women with early lipedema after physical therapy correlated with a reduction of tissue sodium in the skin and SAT as measured by sodium and water MRI.

This proof-of-principle study showed that hands-on manual massage techniques not only helped patients feel better, but acted directly on the source of their pain.

One of the patients "was dealing with pain which was unexplained, and her doctor didn't know what to do," Donahue said.

With physical therapy, "her pain basically went down to zero and very quickly for her … For these individuals, it was very effective in changing their quality of life."

They have also developed a technique called magnetic resonance lymph angiography to better understand the hallmark features of lipedema. "We think the vascular system is just overloaded with a lot of edema," Crescenzi said.

[ConservativeMind]

This is a painful condition for which compressing the skin can reduce the cause of the pain right out of the flesh.

[ConservativeMind]

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[heartwood]

My impression is that lipedema is often a complication of obesity, rather than having nothing to do with it.

Once established, it does not respond well to diet and exercise, and makes it more difficult to exercise and target at least the obesity.

[Irish Eyes]

It is lymphedema and it can be caused by removal of lymph nodes. Sometime happens with breast cancer patients while undergoing a mastectomy.

[Irish Eyes]

Sorry I did not realize they were different conditions.

[Albion Wilde]