A study looking at passive movement during breast reconstruction surgery

This study is looking at the effects of gently moving a woman’s arms and legs during a breast reconstruction operation to see if it helps to reduce pain after surgery.

After a long car or plane journey you may feel stiff and uncomfortable with aches and pains in your back, arms or legs. If you have a long operation, you may have similar pain to this. The pain isn’t permanent but can last for several days.

Researchers would like to know if gently moving a patient’s arms or legs during surgery will reduce this pain and help them recover more quickly. A team of physiotherapists have put together a set of gentle arm and leg movements that can be carried out while someone is under a general anaesthetic. Having someone move your arms or legs when you can’t is called passive movement.

The study team will recruit women with breast cancer who have already had surgery to remove their breast (a mastectomy), and are now having surgery to make a new breast shape (a breast reconstruction). Half the women taking part will have passive movement during their surgery. This won’t affect their surgery in any way.

The aim of the study is to see if passive movement during a long operation can reduce pain and improve recovery. You may not have any benefit from taking part in this study. But information from this study may be used to help people having surgery in the future.