[The effects of leg elevation to reduce leg edema resulting from prolonged standing]

In order to find the most comfortable and effective posture to reduce lower leg edema, 31 young women working in Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, ages ranging from 20 to 40, were studied by the volumetric displacement method with leg placed in a specially designed container. The effects of five different angles of leg elevation on reduction of leg edema were separately evaluated in 5 days. For each evaluation, two measurements of volumetric displacement of lower leg edema were performed after prolong sitting or standing of more than 4 hours, and at the end of 15 minutes of supine lying (angle of leg elevation = 0 degrees), or after the leg was elevated in an angle of 30 degrees, 45 degrees, 60 degrees, or 90 degrees respectively. A good correlation was found between the displaced volume and increasing angle of leg elevation (regression line Y = 99.109-0.016X, r = -0.96). There was a significant difference between leg elevation of 90 degrees and supine lying (t = 3.01, p less than 0.01). The degree of comfort in leg elevation was in the order of 30 degrees, 45 degrees, 60 degrees, 0 degrees, 90 degrees. Many subjects complained of numbness and throbbing pain over the lower legs or pain at the buttocks in the upright leg elevation to 90 degrees posture, but felt rather comfortable in the 30 degrees posture. Seventeen of these subjects were further studied for the degree of comfort in leg elevation at 30 degrees for 30 minutes as compared with those of 30 degrees, 15 minutes and 90 degrees, 15 minutes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)