y. Manual lymph
drainage (in the intervention group) or no lymph drainage
(control group) was started one week after removal of the
axillary drains, so five weeks after the surgery on average, and
was applied over 20 weeks. In our hospital, there is a standard
procedure to leave the drains in until less than 30 mL/day is
collected, and on average this takes four weeks. Randomisation
occurred after we had information about the adjuvant treatment
decided on at the multidisciplinary oncological consultation
(three weeks after surgery)