Manual Lymph Drainage for Post-COVID-19 Related Cough, Breathlessness, and Fatigue; Two Case Reports
Overall, Bronwyn, Langley, Kaori, and Douglass, Janet (2023) Manual Lymph Drainage for Post-COVID-19 Related Cough, Breathlessness, and Fatigue; Two Case Reports. Healthcare, 11 (23). 3085.
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Abstract
Background: Persistent symptoms after SARS CoV-2 infection such as fatigue, shortness of breath, and cognitive dysfunction that cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis have been termed long COVID and present a significant emerging public health problem. Current approaches include rehabilitation and symptom management involving multiple health disciplines and as yet there are no pharmaceutical approaches other than routine symptom management. Manual lymph drainage (MLD) has been used to support recovery during pulmonary rehabilitation and reduce chronic inflammation including symptoms associated with long COVID.
Case description and outcomes: Two adult females who had reported long-COVID symptoms more than 10 weeks after the resolution of the acute infection were treated with MLD by Remedial Therapists trained in the Dr Vodder method of MLD. Respiratory function (Peak Flow Meter) and blood oxygen levels (Oximeter) were recorded before and after a one-minute sit-to-stand test prior to the treatment. The Dyspnea-12 Questionnaire, the Revised Piper Fatigue Scale, and Likert scales were used to collect client-reported outcomes. Six 45-min treatments were applied weekly, with a follow-up review and treatment at three months. In both cases, all outcomes improved after the third treatment with further improvement noted at three months.
Conclusions: MLD may offer a non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical approach to the resolution of long-COVID symptoms such as cough, breathlessness, and fatigue.
Item ID: | 81413 |
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Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
ISSN: | 2227-9032 |
Keywords: | breathlessness, cough, fatigue, long COVID, manual lymph drainage, therapeutic intervention |
Copyright Information: | © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Date Deposited: | 08 May 2024 02:38 |
FoR Codes: | 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4201 Allied health and rehabilitation science > 420109 Rehabilitation @ 70% 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4202 Epidemiology > 420207 Major global burdens of disease @ 30% |
SEO Codes: | 20 HEALTH > 2001 Clinical health > 200105 Treatment of human diseases and conditions @ 100% |
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