Lymphatic Massage for Head & Neck to Reduce Swelling or Lymphedema

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Published 2024-07-05
Lymphedema or soft tissue swelling of the head and neck is common after an illness or after treatment for throat cancer whether surgery and/or radiation therapy. Although compression is commonly used for arm or leg lymphedema, compression is not possible for the head and neck region. Rather lymphatic massage is utilized instead. Beyond massage, exercise is important as muscles act as a pump to stimulate and squeeze the lymphatic vessels to get fluid moving out.

In this video, we will focus on lymphatic massage. Performing the massage first thing in the morning is best for head and neck lymphedema because laying flat all night negates gravity’s influence in helping to keep this region drained when upright during the day.

The overall goal of manual lymph drainage for head and neck lymphedema is to get the fluid moving out of the head and neck area and down towards another region like the chest and armpit areas.

Make sure to use as much of a flat hand and your whole palm or your all your fingers and not just a couple fingers or your fingertips. You want to try to use as much surface area as possible against your skin to get the most benefit. Using lotion or some type massage oil is helpful as well to minimize skin friction.

It's best to perform lymphatic massage sitting upright instead of laying down in order to take advantage of gravity to move the fluid down and out of the head and neck area. Do not perform lymphatic massage in any area that is painful or if you have any new surgical incisions or scars that are not fully healed, otherwise you risk opening up the wound.

Before we begin, make sure to take deep breaths in and out using your diaphragm. Also known as belly breaths, make sure you continue these deep breaths in and out throughout the entire lymphatic massage sequence.

Video created by Dr. Christopher Chang:
www.FauquierENT.net/

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#lymphaticmassage #lymphedema

All Comments (3)
  • @gs07007
    Hey, I’m Georg and 3 years ago I injured my voice while singing. For about 2 years I haven’t been able to talk without pain and swelling feeling at all so I’ve not talked at all. I’ve consulted with my doctors and they’ve told me to exercise speaking regularly even if there’s pain but I want to spread my story to get second opinions. I used to sing a lot for several years before my injury. Some days even about 3 hours a day. Went to singing school sometimes, learn a bit of the (CVT vocal technique) One evening, I started to sing and my voice was not that great that day and I also drank a milk product before what causes my throat to produce a lot of mucus and thick feeling. I tried to sing one high note, but I couldn't reach it, so I squeezed my neck and vocal chords to get that high note and that’s how I injured my voice. From that day on my vocal injury has gone worse to the point that for 2 years now, I haven’t been speaking at all. Just a couple of words in one year. The reason for it is now when I speak, my vocal chords and thyroid area get “swollen” and painful(nerve pinching pain). I put swollen in brackets, because I’ve been to a laryngoscope and the camera didn’t detect any swelling in my vocal chords when they looked at it. And also they didn’t find anything other than couple of granulomas(not on the vocal chords) which could have been caused by some food intolerance. The vocal chords were just weak and atrophied. Going back to 2021 when I firstly injured my voice. The symptoms then were similar, there was the swelling feeling, and nerve pain. (it’s really weird to me that there was no swelling detected on camera, because when I get the swelling feeling, my whole throat feels so swollen. I even got a thyroid ultrasound, but nothing was detected there) So back then, basically I still could use my voice after the injury. So I had to not speak for a couple of weeks and then the swelling feeling went away. And I could practice again and talk. But as time went on. The swelling came back and back. I gave it more and more rest, to make the swelling go away.(one doctor back then even said that don’t stop speaking, but for me it didn’t make sense cause my throat felt so swollen and nerve pinching pain was quite bad). So I gave it more and more rest and as the time went on, about a year from the injury, I could only speak about 20 minutes a day. And it was difficult to avoid the swelling feeling and pain away, so I gave it more and more rest, until it became so bad that last year I couldn’t even laugh and this swelling feeling came back. It has since got minimally better now, but still I can only laugh about 5 times a day or less. My question is, if I start to practice again and ignore the swelling feeling in my throat and the nerve pain, would it injure me even more. That’s what I’m worried about. If someone told me that “100%, you will not injure your voice more when practicing through the pain”, then I would start. The last doctor said exactly that, but I needed to get a second opinion somewhere else, because I’m scared to injure my vocal chords even worse, to the point that I could lose my vocal chords forever. Thank you for reading it the whole way through and I would love to hear your opinion! Thank you in advance! :)
  • @Rajibjobmaker
    Hey,Iam from Bangladesh. I suffer left vocal cord nodules. How can I relieve. I do SoVT exercise, Laryngial massage, how many times do it.1/2/3 month or how month? Plz reply me sir