kinesio taping

[maryie]

I am a nurse and a massage therapist. I would to know from your participants if anyone has used or is using the kinesio taping system?? And, of course, I would like to know what their experiences were.

Please state type of lymph problems that you have and any particulars about you and/or your condition that are relevant to your comments.

I am particularly interested in knowing if it does any good and when it does any good

and if the skin experienced problems from the tape in any way (only when moving, only when sweating, only when the swelling became worse, etc.

And, a general comment. I would like this information as I am thinking of taking a class to use the tape and I would like to know if it helps people who are have "temporary" and/or permanent edema of all types. Thank you for your help.

[Cassie]

Hi, Maryie,

I'm afraid I don't know much about it, though I've tried it for chest LE following mastectomy. It did seem to work rather quickly, but I have skin allergies to adhesive so had to remove it after about 24 hours. I had used a skin prep beforehand to hopefully fend off the allergic reaction but it didn't work well enough. I've since heard that if you apply Milk of Magnesia to the area to be taped first and let it dry, you can safely tape even allergic skin. Since my swelling is now nicely controlled by massage and compression I haven't tried this, but should I need more aggressive help in the future I wouldn't hesitate. A number of my friends use taping for both arm and leg LE and every one of them is enthusiastic about it. It is hard to apply by oneself in some instances (on the back, say), but with help several friends have learned to do it at home.

So much of LE treatment sounds hokey when you first hear about it. Why, for instance, would that gentle little kitten-stroking massage do anything at all? But it does, it does!

Hope you class helps you better help a whole world of LE patients!
Cassie

[Pam]

Maryie,
Funny you are asking about Kinesio Tape. I ordered 9 rolls today. I have bi lateral lower extremity, secondary to sarcoma of my cervix. I had surgery, radiation and cellulitist several times. My left leg is much larger than right.
I started lymphatic drainage and wrapping (again) the beginning of July. I am seeing improvement. My therapist has taken the course and really feels that Kinesio Tape works. She has a few pt. who LOVE the tape. She has been waiting for a shipment for a few weeks. I have not started with the tape yet, but hope that her shipment comes in so that I can get wrapped for the week end with the tape. I am looking forward to it.
Kinesio Taping Associaton is looking for someone who is interested in practitioners who are willing to do research using Kinesio Tape on pt. You can go to their sight to check it out. www.kinesiotaping.com
4 years ago I had LD and was wrapping and I became non compliant and now I am paying for it. In two weeks of therapy I have lost anywhere from 2cm to 7 cm through out my leg. I can't wait to start with the tape.
I will keep you updated.:cool:

[Emily P. Bees]

I would encourage you to take the class, because I believe that the more tools our therapists have available, the better job you will be able to do in tailoring an appropriate individual treatment for each of us.

I use kinesio tape & I really like it. I find the tape to be very comfortable – rather like wearing a nicely worn-in soft perfectly fitting garment. It moves with me and does not feel like traditional tape at all. And, for me, it helps with the LE – which in my case is chest wall/trunk LE. I was told that kinesio tape is used most often with these areas of LE.

My therapist applied it after each mld session (you can’t exactly bandage someone’s trunk like you can a limb – so she used kinesio tape) and it felt good the minute it went on the first time. The only problem I had was when she tried to use it to cross over to the opposite axilla. Too much sweat dribbles down the cleavage area for it to stay stuck there – at least for me. This was not sweat from under the tape, but rather sweat dripping down from above. Sweat from under the tape drains quite nicely as the adhesive is not continuous.

Bringing the tape above the shoulder blade and around the back worked very well. She didn’t tape to the groin area, because she felt it would be too uncomfortable having all that tape all the way down my body.

Once I was under control she had me fitted for a compression bra and pads. There are lots of things wrong with that arrangement and while I’ve been using them and working on improvements, I’ve also learned to use the kinesio tape. It’s a bit of a trick to do myself as I have to be in full stretch to do it with no stretch on the tape. I can do the piece over the shoulder blade, but not the one around my back. So, I have tried going to the groin a few times when I felt more swollen than usual, and I find that very comfortable also. You do have to cut the tape into patterns, but once you’ve know what works for a specific person, that’s a pretty repetitive task.

Knowing how to use it is important. It’s tricky, and doesn’t work if not used properly. I’m certainly glad that my therapist knew about it and was willing to help me experiment with it to see what would work best. In order to do it myself, I’ve also learned to cut the paper backing before a tape. That way I can take the backing off only a portion of the piece of tape at a time.

The tape usually lasts a good 4 days, sometimes 5. Once it even lasted over a week. It is no problem to remove - practically falls off by that time. Then I either move to a new location or do without for a couple days so my skin isn’t always under tape. However, I haven’t had any problems with the adhesive at all, it seems to be mild. The stuff does breathe – and the adhesive is not continuous. I sweat through it and I swim with it on (there’s a water resistant version which I think is best). The adhesive is heat sensitive and it takes an hour or so for it to really adhere solidly after you apply it.

It’s not a miracle overnight cure or anything, but used regularly (along with exercises, self-massage, water aerobics and sometimes even a compression garment) it really does help keep things under control for me. I really can tell the difference when I haven’t been using it for a few days. I’ve heard a number of LE patients say they felt it did little or nothing for them, and I haven’t seen anything indicating how to tell who it might help and who not.

The theory is that in part kinesio tape accentuates your body movements to encourage the lymph to move along. So, the more movement you do, the more there is for the tape to accentuate.

The only study I’ve found on kinesio tape was done on male rabbits’ hind legs -- see: (pubmed abstract) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=14703615

(abstract or full text article – for free): http://www.eymj.org/abstracts/viewArticle.asp?year=2003&page=1045