Lipoedema Care: A Germany-Based Physio & MLD Specialist’s Perspective — Tanja Bröse-Kronz | Part 1

I was going to ask you how much of what you do is just people coming to you regularly versus how much is surgery recovery.

But it sounds like from what you've said that that's really where your area of specialty is, sort of that handholding, helping people through that whole journey in preparation for surgery and post-surgery recovery.

Yeah.

Yes, that would be great if that would be my really specializing.

The reality is in the clinic where I'm employed in Germany, we say practice because actually in Germany, if you say clinic, it's a hospital.

So we use practice.

use the word practice and there I do everything a physiotherapist does.

But meanwhile, I have to admit I'm doing about 80% lymphatic drainage, but a lot of oncologic patients.

So after breast cancer and so on, it's important as well.

And meanwhile, they often, when they have the aplatio, they also get implants or some, you know, so it's kind of mixture between the cancer surgery and the plastic surgery.

And plastic surgery is the second part I love to do because that is very low in Germany.

It's not very common that people go to a physiotherapist after plastic surgery.

which is a pity.

Well, I think we're going to ask a whole heap of questions to you today about why therapy is so important post-surgery.

So I'm sure it will circle back around, but I am mindful that they've recently changed some of the guidelines in Germany and that there's now I guess surgery is becoming, certainly for lipoedema, becoming an option funded under the government.

But from what I'm hearing you say, they're not necessarily getting all of the follow-up treatment that you would suggest.

Would that be right?

That's true.

And we really have to separate the plastic surgery from liposuction for lipoedema because it's two different parts.

Lipoedema is an acknowledged diagnosis and liposuction is an acknowledged treatment.

And liposuction for lipoedema is something else as an aesthetic liposuction.

So that's to be clear.

And yes, it's covered by the government,

but

only under special circumstances for the patient and for the doctors.