Complex combined decongestion therapy

The complex combined decongestive therapies usually include professional instruction and implementation of skin care and hygiene measures, manual lymphatic drainage techniques, applied dynamic compression bandages and accompanying exercise therapy. Atypical, circumscribed types of edema or severe forms of edema can also be treated by the combination and targeted application of these therapies.

Application is divided into an intensive, partly inpatient treatment phase to reduce the volume of the extremities or the edema volume as well as edema pressure, followed by a second outpatient maintenance phase, which aims to maintain the volume reduction in the long term and is continued at home.

This intensive kind of therapy, which is reserved for more difficult forms of edema, is very effective; edema volume reduction rates of up to 68% have been published.

The effectiveness is significantly higher in the early phase of lymphedema, when there is not yet major fibrolipomatous tissue hardening, than in the late phase which is often irreversible.

This again illustrates the necessity of early edema treatment before permanent, irreversible damage occurs.