Each day about 20 litres of plasma leak from the blood capillaries into the tissues, the venous end reclaims some 17 litres, and the protein-rich 3-litre remainder is the lymphatic system's job. Lymph here moves one way only, squeezed along by muscle and stopped from sliding back by valves, passing through nodes where macrophages and lymphocytes inspect everything drifting by. Lymphedema is that route blocking as fluid swells the tissue; after a fatty meal, milky chyle gathers into the thoracic duct.
Each day about 20 litres of plasma leak from the blood capillaries into the tissues, the venous end reclaims some 17 litres, and the protein-rich 3-litre remainder is the lymphatic system's job. Lymph here moves one way only, squeezed along by muscle and stopped from sliding back by valves, passing through nodes where macrophages and lymphocytes inspect everything drifting by. Lymphedema is that route blocking as fluid swells the tissue; after a fatty meal, milky chyle gathers into the thoracic duct.
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