I89.03: Lymphoedema, other sites, stage I

Lymph fluid has accumulated in your tissue.

Fluid forms in tissue throughout the body every day. This tissue fluid is the lymph. The lymph is carried around the body by lymph vessels. The lymph vessels run around the entire body and are connected to blood vessels. At some points, there are lymph nodes along the lymph vessels. Pathogens are rendered harmless in the lymph nodes, for example.

The lymph has accumulated in your head, neck, chest or genitals.

For different reasons, the lymph is sometimes unable to drain properly from the tissue. Possible causes are, for example, if the lymph vessels change after birth, or if pathogens have damaged the lymph vessels. The lymph may then accumulate in the tissue. The leg or arm can then swell up as a result. This can cause the skin to tighten. If you press on the parts of the skin that are affected, you can briefly press aside the lymph below. This causes a dent to form in that place for a short time. Raising the affected body parts reduces the swelling. The raising enables the lymph to drain away better.