When I first heard of this, I was extremely skeptical. I honestly did not see the value added at that time to the patient’s postoperative experience however, at the urging of one of our staff members, we arranged for our patients to start having lymphatic massage is postoperatively and the results were nothing short of miraculous. Patients were able to migrate from the stage I garment to the stage II garment much faster with the aid of lymphatic massage. I observed areas of postoperative swelling to be resolved much faster with the aid of this treatment modality. After watching the results of this treatment on the first half dozen patients, I was sold on this and offered it to all of our patients and now routinely do so.
The idea of lymphatic massage is to push the accumulated fluid within the tissues postoperatively to the regional lymphatics where the fluid is then drained from the body. It is a gentle process that is comfortable to undergo and results in the accelerated resolution of accumulated fluid in postoperative areas that arise either from the placement of tumescent solution prior to liposuction or surgery and third spaced fluid, or both. Patients who have undergone this treatment give very favorable accounts and there is no issue for them to complete the treatment series.
