Compression bandage - a special bandage, which is achieved by means of adequate compression of the soft tissues of the hand, and thus the lymphatic and blood capillaries. This leads to the prevention of lymph stagnation and excess blood flow to the tissues.
Compression bandaging is used as part of a comprehensive treatment of lymphedema and is carried out after a session of manual lymphatic drainage. Studies show that with proper application of this bandage the arterial blood supply suffers little hands and nutrition of tissues is not disrupted. The volume of blood in the venous section becomes smaller, the lumen of the veins is reduced, resulting in increased blood flow velocity, and thus achieved prevention of thrombosis.
Another positive effect of compression bandaging is to reduce the permeability of the capillary wall to plasma proteins, resulting in reduced protein load on the lymph. In addition, compression bandages also contribute to the improvement of lymph drainage.
Contraindication to the use of compression bandaging is the presence of impaired blood flow (eg, disease or Raynaud's syndrome, diabetes, etc.).
There are three types of bandage bandages:
low elastic bandages, stretching up to 70%
average elastic bandages, stretching to the 70-140%
highly elastic bandages, stretching more than 140%.
In the treatment of lymphedema bandages are used only to low and medium elasticity. Highly bandage due to the strong return of rubber thread provides high pressure at rest and low operating pressure, which has a low effect on the impact on the microcirculation. Nizkoelastichny bandage provides low pressure at rest and high operating pressure. This means that the pressure bandage alone a small, but during exercise, it rises and compresses the microcirculation.
When applying the bandage on his hand to apply the pads to avoid excessive compression of the protruding limbs. As a soft foam pads can be used with thickness of 0.5-1.0 cm to avoid irritation of the skin, friction bands on the wound surface, and possible allergic reactions before applying the bandage on the arm sleeve dress made of cotton fabric. It serves to absorb perspiration.
For proper bandaging is necessary to achieve the most uniform tension of the elastic bandage. Direction-binding principle of no importance if the bandage stretched uniformly, without forming pockets and transverse folds.
