Regional Distribution of Epifascial Swelling and Epifascial Lymph Drainage Rate Constants in Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema

Abstract

A systematic difference in lymph drainage along the axis of the forearm was demonstrated for the first time. Local differences in epifascial k did not, however, explain the regionality of swelling, in keeping with previous evidence that epifascial k does not correlate with differences in swelling between arms, whereas subfascial k does. The results lead to the rejection of the hypothesis that epifascial (cf. subfascial) lymph drainage rate constants govern epifascial swelling in human forearm.