Management of acute traumatic pain by peripheral transcutaneous electrical stimulation.
Peripheral transcutaneous electrical stimulation has been used in an attempt to relieve the pain associated with fractured ribs. Sixty-two per cent of the patients considered their pain to be greatly relieved by this electro-analgesic technique and a further 28% gained some relief. Pain was assessed by means of a visual analogue scale. In most of the patients there was a clinical improvement in their condition, the degree of which correlated well with the pain relief. This trial indicated that transcutaneous electro-analgesia is a useful technique for producing analgesia in patients suffering from acute trauma, without some of the side-effects inherent in more conventional forms of therapy.
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000698:Analgesia; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012272:Ribs / Q000293:injuries*