Applications of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation in the Management of Patients with Pain

Abstract

Numerous publications devoted to the topic of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) have appeared since the presentation of a special issue of Physical Therapy (December, 1978). This update article addresses contemporary information on efficacy, mode of application, treatment outcomes, and neurophysiological mechanisms relevant to this modality. Investigators have become far more specific when presenting this information in the current literature on treating acute pain conditions with TENS than they were in the literature for the 1978 special issue. Improvement has been made in providing specific details to enable replication of TENS stimulating characteristics among patients with chronic pain; yet several clinical researchers still fail to evaluate treatment outcomes adequately. Perhaps the greatest advances in our understanding of TENS involve the recent development of mechanisms that might account for how different types of TENS work. Suggestions for predicting patient responses to TENS and for avenues of future inquiry are offered.

Effects of Magnetic Infrared Laser Irradiation on Formalin-Induced Chronic Paw Inflammation of Mice

“…D e x a m e t h a s o n e i s a w e l l -k n o w n glucocorticoid, and it is the most widely used antiinflammatory control drug in the development of new anti-inflammatory drugs 2,3,6) . Besides the traditional steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, many alternative physical techniques such as electric stimulation 14) , short wave 15) , ultrasound 16) and laser 17) have been satisfactorily used in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Although magnetic infrared laser (MIL) therapy has been used in the treatment of various inflammatory diseases [18][19][20] , most of the treatments were clinical approaches and the effects of MIL on pre-clinical inflammatory responses have seldom been studied except for its effect on xylene-induced acute inflammatory responses 21) .…”

Effects of Magnetic Infrared Laser on Xylene-induced Acute Inflammation in Mice

“…As control anti-inflammatory drugs, indomethacin is a cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor and dexamethasone is a well-known glucocorticoid; these drugs are the most widely used as controls in the development of the new anti-inflammatory drugs 5,6) . Besides the traditional steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, many alternative physical techniques such as electric stimulation 7) , short wave 8) , ultrasound 9) and laser 10) radiation have been satisfactorily used in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Although magnetic infrared laser (MIL) therapy has also been used in the treatment of various inflammatory diseases [11][12][13] , most therapies were clinical approaches and the effect on xyleneinduced acute inflammatory responses has not been reported yet.…”

Efficacy of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation for Osteoarthritis of the Lower Extremities: a Meta-analysis

“…One non-invasive method reported to be helpful in pain control is TENS, which has been used to reduce both acute and chronic pain caused by surgery, various disease processes, and conditions of other aetiologies. 8,9,[42][43][44] Studies concerning the application of TENS for pain relief specifically in patients with osteoarthritis have been carried out, and the results are conflicting and controversial, with about half showing some significant effects of TENS on pain reduction. 45 Despite these ambiguous results, TENS continues to be used as an adjunct to other therapies for pain relief.…”