Lymph edema is the buildup of fluid known as lymph in the tissues under your skin when something blocks its normal flow. This leads to swelling, most commonly in an arm or leg. Lymph generally does an important job for your body. It carries foreign material and bacteria away from your skin and body tissues, and it circulates infection-fighting cells, which are part of your immune system. Lymph flows slowly through the network of vessels known as your lymphatic system, stopping at points along the way to be filtered through lymph nodes. Lymph first collects by coming out of your cells into the smallest lymphatic vessels near the skin. After traveling all through the small vessels, lymph drains into deeper, wider lymph channels that run through the body. Ultimately, lymph fluid returns to the blood.

More of the swollen arm- Lymph edema

Lymph edema is not the same as edema, which is another state that causes arm or leg swelling. In both problems there is too much fluid in the limb, but only lymph edema leads to a blocked drainage. Without a blockage, the fluid can be forced forward in your lymphatic system, so you can see pitting small temporary indentations left on the skin after you press on the swollen area. Pitting does not take place when you press on skin if you have lymph edema. In many of the cases of lymph edema, the lymphatic system has been injured so that the flow of lymph is blocked either temporarily or permanently. Ordinary causes include surgical damage or surgical cuts and the removal of lymph nodes can interfere with normal lymph flow. Sometimes, lymph edema appears instantaneously after surgery and goes away quickly. In other cases, lymph edema develops from one month to fifteen years after a surgical process.

Conclusion

Lymph edema is most usually seen in people who have had surgery for breast cancer. Lymph edema also may take place after surgery for prostate or testicular cancer, melanoma and cancer in the lower abdomen. An infection involving the lymphatic vessels, rarely, a bacterial infection that leads to a red stripe on the arm or leg can be severe enough to cause lymph edema. In areas of the tropics and subtropics, such as South American, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the South Pacific, a parasite generally causes lymph edema. Filariasis, a parasitic worm infection, blocks the lymph channels and leads to swelling and thickening below the skin, usually in the legs. Filariasis is hardly seen in the United States, except in people who emigrated from tropical areas.