BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Surgery and radiotherapy (RT) may induce upper limb (UP) pain, functional disorder and daily life activities impairment. This study aimed at evaluating and comparing superficial sensitivity (SS) on the dermatome corresponding to the intercostobrachial sensory nerve (ICBN), pain and disability of UL ipsilateral to surgery before and after adjuvant RT. METHOD: Twenty females submitted to surgery including axillary lymphadenectomy (AL) were evaluated before and immediately after adjuvant RT (25-30 sessions). The following tools were used to evaluate SS, pain and disability: esthesiometry, McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ), Pain Rating Index and shoulder disability (SPADI). Two measures were obtained from MPQ: number of words chosen (NWC) and pain rating index (PRI). Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test for paired samples was used for intragroup comparison, considering significant p < 0.05. RESULTS: There has been significant SS decrease after RT by increased esthesiometer pressure from 1.9 ± 0.2 to 2.8 ± 0.2 (p = 0.004) indicating hypoesthesia. There has been no difference in contralateral UL. NWC and PRI scores have significantly increased (p = 0.005 and p = 0.006) after RT. There has been significant total SPADI score increase after RT (p = 0.0001), with increased disability from 24.6 ± 5.7 to 39.2 ± 5.7 (p = 0.001) and pain from 26.3 ± 6.4 to 48.4 ± 7.1 (p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Hypoesthesia was identified in the ICBN pathway, in addition to UL pain and disability after adjuvant RT.
Breast cancer; Hypoesthesia; Mastectomy; Pain; Physical therapy; Radiation therapy
