Physical and Psychological Complications of Mastectomy: The Role of Physioterapy

Breast cancer affects a large number of women worldwide. Surgical management has evolved towards mastectomies and breast-conserving surgeries. The complications following a mastectomy can be physical and/or psychological. The physical complications include pain, scarring, lymphedema, limitation in range of motion at the shoulder, muscle weakness, change in body posture, etc. Some of the psychological complications are negative boy image, anxiety, depression and depressive disorders, negative body image. Appropriate management requires a multi-disciplinary team of which the physiotherapist is a part of. Literature has shown that there is a better improvement in physical function if physiotherapy is commenced early. Therefore, physiotherapy should be incorporated pre and post-mastectomy. Physiotherapy management should focus on lymphatic drainage, soft tissue mobilization, range of motion exercises, strengthening exercises and postural correction. Increased physical activity and recommendation of support groups can help to improve psychological outcomes. It is the role of the physical therapist to deal with the physical and psychological complications of a mastectomy to improve the quality of life of the patients

Knowledge of comprehensive sexuality education (HIV-component) among young girls in Africa: implications for sex education policies and programmes

Introduction: The sexual and reproductive health problems such as HIV or AIDS, faced by youths has been largely attributed to insufficiency or lack of necessary information to make informed choices and prevent adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Hence, to reduce these problems, it is expedient that we embrace a potent prevention strategy: Comprehensive Sexuality Education. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the knowledge of young African girls about comprehensive sexuality education, especially the HIV component. Material and methods: This study made use of secondary data collated by the UNFPA on comprehensive knowledge about HIV among young girls between 15 and 24 years of age in 28 African countries. The data obtained from the UNFPA database was collated and analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2019. Results: Namibia is the only African country surveyed that had more than 50% of young girls between 15 and 24 years of age with comprehensive knowledge about HIV. Chad had the poorest result with only 4% of young girls (15–24 years) with good and comprehensive knowledge of HIV. Four African countries had half or more of young girls between 20 and 24 years of age with comprehensive knowledge of HIV. Only six of the 28 nations surveyed had young girls (15-19 years of age) with very good and intensive knowledge of HIV. Conclusion: There appears to be a poor knowledge of comprehensive sexuality education across African countries. Also, barriers to proper implementation and low effectiveness of CSE at the country level were also presented. These should be appropriately dissected in making youth, sexual, and reproductive health, as well as education policies and program

Effectiveness of electrical stimulation and low-intensity laser therapy on diabetic neuropathy: A systematic review

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a group of metabolic diseases which typically presents with frequent urination, increased thirst and increased hunger. DM be classified into three main types: type I (insulin-dependent DM), type-II (non-insulin dependent DM) and type III (gestational DM). Diabetes is a group of diseases of global health significance as 382 million people worldwide had diabetes in the year 2013 and this was projected to increase to an estimated 415 million in 2015. Damage to the nerves of the body (diabetic neuropathy) is the most common complication of diabetes. The signs and symptoms of diabetic neuropathy include numbness, diminished sensation, pain etc. Various types of electrotherapy, such as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), pulsed-dose electrical stimulation, frequency-modulated electromagnetic neural stimulation, have been reported effective in managing diabetic neuropathy. This study is a systematic review of the evidence to enable the determination of the effectiveness of electrical stimulation and low-intensity laser therapy (LILT), and also aid their recommendation if proven to be effective. The outcome of this study was that TENS and other forms of electrical stimulation reviewed in this study may be effective and safe non-pharmacological treatment modalities in relieving the symptoms associated with diabetic neuropathy. The effectiveness of LILT couldn’t be determined due to the different parameters used to evaluate patients’ outcome and limited number of studies. Authors recommend that further randomized controlled trials with similar methodological parameters and studies with higher quality of evidences are needed to establish the true effectiveness of these modalities in diabetic neuropathy