Manual therapy associated with upper limb exercises vs. exercises alone for shoulder rehabilitation in postoperative breast cancer.

Our objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of manual therapy (MT) associated with upper limb (UL) exercises in women with impaired shoulder range of motion (ROM) after axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) for breast cancer. A randomized, prospective, blinded clinical trial with 131 women with a ROM  <-  100° for shoulder flexion and/or abduction on the first day postoperatively were evaluated. Sixty-six women were allocated to group exercises and 65 underwent the exercises followed by MT.