yooperPN
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I have a question regarding ace wraps for edema in legs/feet. I have a resident that has severe edema in both LE for as long as I've been employed at my facility (approx. 1 year). I believe she's had the edema to this extreme even before I became employed there. Her Dr. has ordered Ace wraps to her legs throughout the day, removed at night while she's sleeping. The whole time I've been employed there, we have "spiral" wrapped her legs, beginning right above the toes and working our way to just below the knee. By mid afternoon, her legs begin to have the "mushroom" top (). The other day, a nurse who has had a lot of experience in a cardiac unit informed me that she had always been trained to "figure 8" wrap LE, it is better for circulation. I did this for her the following morning to see if it would help reduce the edema; but I'm not sure if it had made any difference. The morning after that I went in to wrap her legs and they appeared as ballooned as they would normally appear. I wrapped them in "figure 8" again though, because I do believe this nurse would know more about circulation from her past experience. I'm curious, does anyone know if there are certain ways to wrap the LE to alleviate edema? Are there any other techniques I could do for her to try to get her legs in a somewhat normal state (besides raising the foot of the bed when in bed, using pillows to prop them up, etc). Her legs get so edema filled then when I wake her in the AM to put her wraps on, she has wrinkles in her ankles/calf areas from the pillows she uses to prop her legs and the fluid returning. I feel for her!!