Active warming as emergency interventional care for the treatment of pelvic pain.
OBJECTIVE
To assess whether local active warming can lessen acute pelvic pain of gynaecological origin compared with traditional methods in a prehospital setting.


METHODS
Prospective, randomised, single-blinded study. Setting. Prehospital emergency system. Population. Women calling emergency ambulance for pelvic pain.


METHODS
Women were randomised in two groups: resistive heating (group 1) or passive warming (group 2), each treatment was initiated at the emergency site.


METHODS
Pain on visual analogue scale (VAS), anxiety and nausea, given as mean (SD).


RESULTS
Prior to the interventions, all women were vasoconstricted and had comparable pain scores. Then, group 1 showed a significant (P < 0.01) reduction in pain (VAS: 72.2 [10.5] mm to 32.4 [18.0] mm), anxiety (VAS: 59.0 [10.9] mm to 37.5 [24.1] mm), nausea (VAS: 42.7 [6.2] mm to 21.6 [5.0] mm) and heart rate (101 [12] beats per minute [bpm] to 59 [8] bpm), as well as in the number of vasoconstricted women (from 19/19 (constricted/dilated) to 2/19 (constricted/dilated)), whereas scores in group 2 remained unchanged. There were no significant changes in blood pressure in either group.


CONCLUSIONS
Local warming is an effective emergency care measure for acute pelvic pain.
Bertalanffy
P
P
Department of Anesthesiology and General Intensive Care, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Kober
A
A
Andel
H
H
Hahn
R
R
Frickey
N
N
Hoerauf
K
K
D000328:Adult; D004638:Emergency Treatment / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006979:Hyperthermia, Induced / Q000379:methods*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D017699:Pelvic Pain / Q000628:therapy*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D016896:Treatment Outcome