Single-Blinded, Randomized Preliminary Study Evaluating the Effect of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation on Postoperative Pain in Patients with Colles’ Fracture

Item

Title

Single-Blinded, Randomized Preliminary Study Evaluating the Effect of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation on Postoperative Pain in Patients with Colles’ Fracture

Author(s)

Journal Publication

Date

2015

volume

21(12)

pages

754-758

Research Type

RCT

Keywords

Abstract

Objective: Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) has been widely used for pain relief; however, the effect remains controversial. The authors hypothesized that TENS can relieve acute pain. Therefore, a single-blinded, randomized, controlled preliminary study was designed on postoperative pain in patients with Colles' fracture. Methods: In total, 36 patients were assigned to a real TENS or sham TENS group (18 patients in each group). TENS (50?Hz, 15?min/day) was applied near the Quchi (LI11) and Waiguan (TE5) surfaces of the operative side continuously for 5 days after surgical treatment. Results: The visual analog scale (VAS) scores did not differ significantly between the real and sham TENS groups before the TENS period, from the first to fifth day after surgical treatment (all p?>?0.05), whereas the VAS scores were lower for the real TENS group than for the sham TENS group in the post-TENS period, on the first, third, fourth, and fifth days after surgical treatment (all p???0.01). Conclusion: TENS might be valuable as a treatment of postoperative pain, but clinicians and researchers should know that it is no different than a treatment with placebo. Especially, since this form of treatment and sham treatment has a great chance of working under the mechanism of the placebo effect due to its single-blindedness.

pmid

Accession Number: 121203770; Source Information: Dec2015, Vol. 21 Issue 12, p754; Subject Term: POSTOPERATIVE pain -- Treatment; Subject Term: ANALYSIS of variance; Subject Term: FRACTURES; Subject Term: NONSTEROIDAL anti-inflammatory agents; Subject Term: PLACEBOS (Medicine); Subject Term: POSTOPERATIVE pain; Subject Term: PROBABILITY theory; Subject Term: RADIUS (Anatomy) -- Wounds & injuries; Subject Term: RESEARCH -- Finance; Subject Term: T-test (Statistics); Subject Term: TRANSCUTANEOUS electrical nerve stimulation; Subject Term: RANDOMIZED controlled trials; Subject Term: VISUAL analog scale; Subject Term: TREATMENT effectiveness; Subject Term: ADVERSE health care events; Subject Term: ; Number of Pages: 5p; ; Illustrations: 1 Black and White Photograph, 1 Diagram, 2 Charts, 1 Graph; ; Document Type: Article;

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