Efeito do exercício físico sobre a composição corporal, postura e capacidade funcional de pacientes com linfedema secundário ao tratamento de câncer de mama

Abstract

Lymphedema secondary to breast cancer causes a process of functional changes in body composition and posture. However, there is a lack of studies that focus on analyzing the influence of physical exercise on body composition, functional capacity and posture of mastectomized elderly women. Objective: To evaluate the effect of functional physical exercise on body composition, posture and functional capacity of mastectomized women with lymphedema. Methods: Twenty women aged 55 to 75 years who had upper limb lymphedema, post-treatment mastectomy (GM) and 20 control women (CG) without secondary lymphedema or history of breast cancer were evaluated. Assessments of body composition, postural and functional capacity were performed before and after training. Results: In the anthropometric variables evaluated before training, the GM group presented higher fat in the trunk region and extracellular water compared to the CG group. Body posture showed deviation in lateral head alignment at both times of the study in the GM group. There was a positive correlation between acromial height and lymphedema in patients in the GM group (r2 = 0.58; p = 0.01). Functional capacity was found to increase agility only in the CG group after training. There was no significant difference between Muscle Resistance for Lower (MRL) and Upper Limbs (MUL) between groups. We also compared the RMS between the mastectomized and contralateral hemibodies in the GM group, showing an improvement in the post-training contralateral hemibody. We observed a greater perception of exertion (SPE) in the mastectomized limb when compared to the contralateral one. Conclusion: Physical training in the GM group may result in benefits for mastectomized women with improvement in the contralteral hemibody, but it was not sufficient to improve the body composition and body posture parameters analyzed.