Guliyeva, Günel

Abstract In patients with breast hypertrophy, excessive breast weight applies pressure on the thorax, which may disrupt the normal breathing. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the breast hypertrophy and reduction mammoplasty on respiratory function. A comprehensive search of 3 databases, PubMed, Ovid, and Scopus databases, was performed. “Mammoplasty” and “respiration or pulmonary function tests” were the keywords used to search for relevant articles. Ten studies involving 280 patients with breast hypertrophy were included in the final review. Seven articles demonstrated an increase in at least 1 pulmonary function test value after the surgery. This systematic review revealed that, preoperatively, pulmonary function test values of the patients are usually in the normal range. Nonetheless, reduction mammoplasty still improves lung function parameters. Additionally, patients with respiratory complaints felt improvement in their symptoms after the surgery. However, future studies are needed, as heterogeneity among studies was observed.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most frequent cause of secondary lymphedema. Besides being progressive and chronic, lymphedema is usually hard to treat. That is why the clinicians are more focused on the prevention of its development and progression. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the possible relationship between the age of patients and the severity of breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL). METHODS: PubMed, Scopus, and Ovid MEDLINE databases were searched for articles, which described the relationship between aging and BCRL development. Two authors searched for and selected articles independently. RESULTS: Out of 562 studies selected, 8 studies met the inclusion criteria. However, 2 papers had the same study population, so only 7 were included in the final analysis. The total number of patients in those 7 studies was 3,904. Five out of 7 studies included in our review depicted the association of more severe forms of BCRL with older age. CONCLUSION: The final analysis showed that aging is related to the severity of BCRL. However, due to heterogeneity in study outcome reporting, the cause and effect relationship could not be determined.

AbstractBackgroundIn recent years, magnetic resonance imaging lymphangiography (MRL) has emerged as a way to predict if patients are candidates for lymphedema surgery, particularly lymphovenous anastomosis (LVA). Our goal was to conduct a systematic review of the literature on the use of MRL for preoperative planning in lymphedema surgery. We hypothesized that MRL could add valuable information to the standard preoperative evaluation of lymphedema patients.MethodsOn February 17, 2020, we conducted a systematic review of the PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Clinical Answers, and Embase databases, without time frame or language limitations, to identify articles on the use of MRL for preoperative planning of lymphedema surgery. We excluded studies that investigated other applications of magnetic resonance imaging, such as lymphedema diagnosis and treatment evaluation. The primary outcome was the examination capacity to identify lymphatic anatomy and the secondary outcome was the presence of adverse effects.ResultsOf 372 potential articles identified with the search, nine studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria. A total of 334 lymphedema patients were enrolled in these studies. Two studies compared MRL findings with those of other standard examinations (indocyanine green lymphography [ICG‐L] or lymphoscintigraphy). No adverse effects due to MRL were reported. A study shown that MRL had higher sensitivity to detect lymphatic vessel abnormalities compared with lymphoscintigraphy and a statistically higher chance of successful LVA was observed when the results of MRL agreed with those of ICG‐L (p < .001).ConclusionsMRL could be useful for preoperative planning in lymphedema surgery. The scientific evidence has been limited, so further studies with greater numbers of patients and cost analysis are necessary to justify the addition of MRL to current preoperative protocols.