Somatic sensation and discomfort in the arm of post-mastectomy patients

From a group of 928 randomly allocated women that had undergone mastectomy for cancer, 475 were examined with respect to the somatic sensations and discomfort in the arm on the side of the operation. The women rated psychological variables such as sensations and discomfort according to an 8-degree scale. The variables investigated were: heaviness of the arm and hardness of the arm tissue, tension, weakness and paresthesia. Eighty per cent of the women recorded a rating of 0. For most of the variables the means were thus low and corresponded to a rating of less than 1. The standard deviation was fairly large. In the women with a rating of 1 or more there was a weak but significant correlation between some of the psychological and somatic variables, including volume (positive correlation) and gripping force (negative correlation). Women with 15% oedema or more recorded the highest rating for the variables heaviness, hardness, weakness. The sensation and discomfort were rated significantly higher by the patients with than by those without discomfort or pain in the cervical and thoracic spine, chest and shoulder. The ratings were significantly higher by the women receiving radiotherapy than in those receiving only surgical treatment. There was no significant difference between the ratings for the women given radiotherapy before and those so treated after the operation.