The results of a prevelance study of lymphoedema performed in our unit were presented at the Wound Management Association of Ireland Annual meeting in Athlone in October 2009.
Lymphoedema prevalence in Ireland: a hospital outpatient clinic based pilot study.
Danielle Byrne(1), Helen Strapp(2), Sean Tierney(2,3), Georgina Gethin(3).
(1) Trinity College Dublin, (2) Adelaide & Meath Hospital, Tallaght, Dublin 24, (3) Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Background: While lympoedema is not a very common condition, it is associated with significant morbidity and disability among those who are moderately or severely affected. Services are usually linked to oncology servcies but many patients with troublesome symptoms have primary lymphodema. A rational development of services and ensuring appropriate access to effective therapy that may improve quality of life depends on accurate epidemiological data. Stduesa from the UK and elsewhere suggests that the prevelance of lymphoedema is approximately 2/1000 but to date there is no reliable data for the Irish population.
Methods: We designed a study to determine the prevelance of lymphoedema among a patient popluation presenting to selected outpatient clinics in a university teaching hospital over a four week period to provide pilot data for an Irish population prevelance study. All patients attending the vascular surgery and wound management outpatient clinics during a four week period (July- August 2009) were surveyed and all those with leg swelling were assissted in completing a proforma questionaire. The study had ethical approval from the Ethics Commitee of the Adelaide & Meath Hospital and informed consent was obtained from all thsoe completing the questionaire.
Results: There were 542 attendances at the clinic during the period. Of these, there were 418 unique patients of which 66% were male. Twenty patients ( 4%) had leg swelling but 3 of these were of short duration and due to recent onset cardiac failure. Of the 17 with chronic (>3 months) leg swelling, 11 fulfilled pre-detrmined criteria for lymphoedema yielding a prevelance of 2.3% in this population (67% were male). None of these 11 had been previously diagnosed with, or treated for, lymphoedema despite an average duration of lower limb swelling in these patients of 2.9 years.
Conclusions: Lymphoedema occurs quite commonly among patients attending vascualr and wound management clinics and is not usually recognised in the community. The prevelance of lymphoedema among non-cancer patients in Ireland warrants further characterisation. Lymphoedema is frequently unrecognised and awareness of the condition should be improved. This preliminary data indicates that the number of patients in Ireland with undiagnosed and untreated lymphoedma is likely to be substantial and further investigation is warranted.
