Post-mastectomy pain syndrome: incidence and risks.

Background: Post-mastectomy pain syndrome is defined as a chronic pain that persists beyond the normal healing time of 3 months. It is considered a neuropathic condition that arises after surgery for breast cancer.

Aim: To evaluate the incidence and risk factors of pain syndromes in patients undergoing surgical treatment of breast cancer in the National Cancer Institute.

[Myoeletric activity pattern of scapular muscles after axillary lymphadenectomy in breast cancer].

Purpose: to identify the pattern of myoelectrical activity of muscles from the scapular region, after axillary lymphadenectomy in breast cancer.

Methods: prospective cohort study including all the women submitted to axillary lymphadenectomy for surgical treatment of breast cancer, in a breast cancer reference center, from June to August 2006. The women were evaluated before, and after 3 and 12 months from the surgery, through physical and electromyographic examinations of the serratus anterior, upper trapezius and middle deltoid muscles.