Jeffrey Harmon and Dr. Ricci Hoover. Lymphatic massage, otherwise known as Manual Lymphatic Drainage MLD , is increasingly being employed to accelerate the recovery of cosmetic surgery patients, including those who have undergone facelift and neck lift surgery. Starting approximately 4 — 6 weeks after surgery, the goal of MLD therapy is to accelerate the resolution of any remaining post-operative swelling.
This is based on the concept, albeit with limited evidence supporting it 1 , that a significant contributor to post-operative swelling is the fact that the lymphatic drainage system needs time to heal after surgery. After all, swelling is expected after any surgery in the head and neck. Furthermore, swelling is expected to improve and resolve over a period of weeks to months after facelift and neck lift surgery, regardless of the intervention.
MLD is believed to improve the flow of lymphatic fluid away from the treatment site s while the body is healing. We at Harmon Facial Plastic Surgery have found this to be one of multiple effective treatment options for normal post-operative swelling in our patients.
It is important to have a consultation with your surgeon prior to considering any treatment, including MLD. Almost all the literature on MLD therapy has been on therapy as one component of multi-modality treatment for swollen arms after a mastectomy for breast cancer.
The effectiveness of the therapy was mixed in the studies, partially due to the lack of standardization of methods and outcome measurements 2, 3.
