Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr;59(2):237-247.
doi: 10.23736/S1973-9087.23.07752-3. Epub 2023 Feb 27.

Efficacy of kinesio taping on upper limb volume reduction in patients with breast cancer-related lymphedema: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Nicola Marotta  1 , Lorenzo Lippi  2   3 , Valerio Ammendolia  1 , Dario Calafiore  4 , Maria T Inzitari  1 , Monica Pinto  5 , Marco Invernizzi  2   3 , Alessandro de Sire  6
Affiliations

Efficacy of kinesio taping on upper limb volume reduction in patients with breast cancer-related lymphedema: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Nicola Marotta et al. Eur J Phys Rehabil Med. 2023 Apr.

Abstract

Introduction: One of the most common disabling complications in breast cancer (BC) patients is breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL), a pathological condition affecting both physical and psychological function, with detrimental consequences on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). Rehabilitation has a key role in the comprehensive management of this condition with several studies reporting positive results after performing complex decongestive therapies (CDT) in these women. Kinesio taping (KT) is a rather recent therapeutic approach to treat BCRL, however, evidence in literature regarding its effectiveness is far from being fully characterized. Therefore, this systematic review aimed at assessing the role of KT among the CDT to treat BCRL.

Evidence acquisition: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were systematically searched from inception until May 5th, 2022 to determine randomized control trials (RCTs) reporting patients with BCRL; KT as intervention; limb volume as outcome (PROSPERO number: CRD42022349720).

Evidence synthesis: Out of the documents identified, 123 were eligible for data screening, and only 7 RCTs satisfied the eligibility criteria and were included. We found that KT might have a positive effect on limb volume reduction in patients with BCRL, albeit there is little evidence for low quality of the included studies.

Conclusions: Taken together, this systematic review showed that KT did not significantly reduce the upper limb volume in BCRL women, albeit it seemed to increase the flow rate during the passive exercise. Further high-quality-studies are mandatory to improve the knowledge in order to include the KT might into a multidisciplinary rehabilitative approach for the management of BC survivors affected by lymphedema.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest.—The authors certify that there is no conflict of interest with any financial organization regarding the material discussed in the manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
—PRISMA 2020 flow diagram for systematic review.
Figure 2
Figure 2
—Kinesio tape application methods (A: Basoglu et al.; B: Ozsoy-Unubol et al.; C: Pajero Otero et al.; D: Pekyavaş et al.; E: Tantawy et al.; F: Taradaj et al.; G: Torres Lacomba et al.47).
Figure 3
Figure 3
—Risk of bias of the included studies.-
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Iacoviello L, Bonaccio M, de Gaetano G, Donati MB. Epidemiology of breast cancer, a paradigm of the “common soil” hypothesis. Semin Cancer Biol 2021;72:4–10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&l... 10.1016/j.semcancer.2020.02.010 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Marcasciano M, Kaciulyte J, Mori FL, Lo Torto F, Barellini L, Loreti A, et al. Breast surgeons updating on the thresholds of COVID-19 era: results of a multicenter collaborative study evaluating the role of online videos and multimedia sources on breast surgeons education and training. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 2020;24:7845–54. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&l... - PubMed
    1. Drobot A, Bez M, Abu Shakra I, Merei F, Khatib K, Bickel A, et al. Microsurgery for management of primary and secondary lymphedema. J Vasc Surg Venous Lymphat Disord 2021;9:226–233.e1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&l... 10.1016/j.jvsv.2020.04.025 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Abouelazayem M, Elkorety M, Monib S. Breast Lymphedema After Conservative Breast Surgery: An Up-to-date Systematic Review. Clin Breast Cancer 2021;21:156–61. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&l... 10.1016/j.clbc.2020.11.017 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sharkey AR, King SW, Kuo RY, Bickerton SB, Ramsden AJ, Furniss D. Measuring Limb Volume: Accuracy and Reliability of Tape Measurement Versus Perometer Measurement. Lymphat Res Biol 2018;16:182–6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&l... 10.1089/lrb.2017.0039 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types