An Assessment of the Relationship Between Abdominal Obesity and the Severity of Upper Extremity Lymphedema.

Background: Obesity is one of the well-known initiating and aggravating factors of lymphedema. Body mass index (BMI) is typically used to define obesity, but in Asian populations, health risks are elevated at lower BMI levels, and abdominal fat may be a better obesity metric. Thus, we assessed the potential association between abdominal obesity and lymphedema severity in postoperative breast cancer patients.