compression garment
Meaning of compression garment: Elastic worn to move fluid rather than to squeeze a limb thinner, with the pressure deliberately highest furthest from the heart.
Definition of compression garment
A compression garment is a close-fitting elastic sleeve, stocking, glove or vest that presses steadily on a limb or part of the body. The pressure is graded, strongest at the far end and easing toward the trunk, so that fluid held in the tissues is encouraged back toward the center of the body. Garments are fitted to measurement and generally worn through waking hours.
How does the pressure help?
Blood returning from a leg or arm travels against gravity through soft-walled veins, helped by one-way valves and by the squeeze of surrounding muscle. Lymph, the watery fluid that seeps out of small blood vessels into tissue, is collected by an even more delicate set of channels and moved the same way. Firm pressure from outside narrows those channels so the valves meet properly, raises the pressure in the tissue itself so less fluid leaks out, and makes every muscle contraction a more effective pump. The grading matters: were the pressure equal along the limb, or tighter at the top, fluid would simply be trapped where it is.
What is it used for?
| Situation | What the garment is doing |
|---|---|
| Lymphedema | Holding a reduction in swelling already achieved |
| Long-standing vein disease | Easing aching and skin damage from pooled blood |
| Healed venous ulcer | Reducing the chance the skin breaks down again |
| After a deep vein clot | Controlling persistent swelling in the limb |
| Burn or surgical scar | Keeping a healing scar flatter and softer |
How does it differ from a bandage or a pump?
The three belong to different stages. A compression bandage is wrapped by a trained hand, can be built up in layers, and is used while swelling is actively being brought down, since it can be re-applied as the limb changes shape. A garment is knitted to fixed dimensions and suits a limb whose size has settled, which is why it is the mainstay of long-term care in lymphedema. A compression pump inflates and deflates chambers in sessions and works only while it is running. Elastic fatigues with washing and wear, so a garment past its useful life delivers noticeably less pressure than its label states.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
A fitted compression garment was prescribed for the affected arm after the swelling had stabilized.
Good to know
Compression assists venous and lymphatic return rather than arterial inflow, and poor arterial supply to a limb is a recognized reason the same pressure that helps one person can harm another.