Evaluation of body posture and upper limb efficiency in women after surgery within the mammary gland

Introduction. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Polish women. Therefore constitutes approximately 23% of all cancers of the female population in Poland. According to the National Cancer Registry incidence of malignant mammary gland cancer exceeds 16500 cases per year. Aim. The aim of this study was to evaluate body posture and efficiency of upper limb of operated side after the surgery within the mammary gland, taking into account the different treatments. Material and methods. In the study involved 30 women after surgical intervention on the mammary gland. To evaluate the range of motion in the joints of the upper limb, the upper limb muscle strength and posture problems resulting from operation, was used Kulakowski and Mika test, and Kasperczyk evaluation. Results. There was no statistically significant evidence for relation between the type of methods of treatment and the body posture and the efficiency upper limbs of patients. However, some trends were noted, which shows that the efficiency of the upper limb on the operated side (assessed on the basis of the Kulakowski and Mika test) was highest in patients treated with tumorectomy, while the lowest – in patients treated with Patey method. At the same time, there was confirmed a statistically significant relation between age of patients, muscle strength and edema in the upper limbs after the surgery. Conclusions. There are not significant statistically differences between the effects of different treatments and the body posture and the efficiency of the upper limb after surgery within the mammary gland. Older patients, who underwent surgery characterized by significantly higher muscle strength, but also a bigger edema of the upper limb than younger patients.