Effects of Different Neck Manual Lymphatic Drainage Maneuvers on the Nervous, Cardiovascular, Respiratory and Musculoskeletal Systems in Healthy Students.

Ángela Río-González,Raquel Díaz-Meco Conde,Ester Cerezo-Téllez,Mónica De La Cueva-Reguera,Carlos Guitérrez-Ortega,Laura González-Fernández,Cristina Gala-Guirao

doi:10.3390/jcm9124062

Abstract

The aim of this study is to describe the short-term effects of manual lymph drainage (MLD) isolated in supraclavicular area in healthy subjects. A 4-week cross-sectional, double-blinded randomized clinical trial was conducted. Participants: 24 healthy participants between 18 and 30 years old were recruited from Universidad Europea de Madrid from December 2018 to September 2019. A total of four groups were studied: control, placebo, Vodder, and Godoy. The order of the interventions was randomized. Resting Heart Rate and Oxygen Saturation, blood pressure, pressure pain threshold of trapezius muscle, respiratory rate, range of active cervical movements were measured before and after every intervention. All the participants fulfilled four different interventions with a one-week-wash-out period. No statistically significant differences were found between groups in descriptive data; neither in saturation of oxygen, diastolic blood pressure and cervical range of motion. Significant differences were found in favor of Vodder (p = 0.026) in heart rate diminution and in cardiac-rate-reduction. A significant difference in respiratory rate diminution is found in favor of the Godoy group in comparison with the control group (p = 0.020). A significant difference is found in favor of the Godoy group in systolic blood pressure decrease (p = 0.015) even in pressure pain threshold (p < 0.05). MLD decreases systolic blood pressure in healthy participants. However, it does not produce any changes in other physiologic outcomes maintaining physiologic values, which may suggest the safety of the technique in patients suffering from other pathologies.

Highlights

Manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) is a very light, rhythmic and superficial massage technique focused on increasing the activity of the lymphatic system, as well as reducing the consistency of the edema and its volume using manual techniques on the skin [1,2]
Different methods of manual lymph drainage (MLD) techniques, as superficial, slow and rhythmic techniques, described changes on the cardiac and respiratory parameters, the hemodynamic function [18,19,20], pain level [21] and joint range of movement [15,22], as result of variations in the autonomic nervous system, inhibiting the sympathetic nervous system. This hypothetical relaxing effect [3,23,24,25,26] suggests that MLD could be beneficial for other types of pathologies related to autonomous disturbance
A statistically significant difference is found in favor to Godoy group in systolic blood pressure decrease in comparison with Vodder group (p = 0.015)

Summary

Introduction

Manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) is a very light, rhythmic and superficial massage technique focused on increasing the activity of the lymphatic system, as well as reducing the consistency of the edema and its volume using manual techniques on the skin [1,2]. Some authors have described specific maneuvers in the supraclavicular area (terminus) used in the cervical region as indispensable for the MLD treatment [3,4]. These manual techniques are associated with the specific treatment of the edematized zone and are described to be good for the treatment of patients suffering from edema [4]. MLD techniques have been described as effective over edema-volume and pain reduction [4,5,6], lymphedema prevention [7,8] and on improving pain, sedation and patient well-being. Thereby, MLD may help breast cancer and neoplasms patients in their treatment of scars and in improving the range of motion when it is accompanied by other treatments [7]

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