[Aspects of the pathology of the arm after irradiation of breast cancer].

The complications of modern surgical and radiotherapeutic methods of treating mammary neoplasms are studied on the basis of 36 cases. Although swollen arms are rare nowdays following the development of greater pectoral conservative mammectomy, lesions of the shoulder and post-radiotherapy plexal paralysis represent a heavy price to pay for these methods. Shoulder lesions are of two types with different prognosis : scapulo-humeral periarthritis, which is very frequent (22 cases) and related to post-radiotherapy axillary fibrosis, and glenohumeral radio lesions (2 cases), which result in blockage of the humeral head because of necrosis. The brachial plexus may be injured by high-energy irradiation. These pathological conditions of the plexus (11 cases), often associated with a painful syndrome that is intolerable, objective sensory disorders, and a motor deficiency that is poorly systematized, are difficult to differentiate clinically from cases of paralysis resulting from invasive neoplasms. Often it is possible to distinguish between them only by means of biopsy, which is difficult. Therapy of these plexopathies is difficult and is usually palliative, necessitating, in particular, the use of neurosurgery of the pain (radicotomies and cordotomies) rather than of neurolyses, the results of which are disappointing.