title: Nonpainful wide-area compression inhibits experimental pain.
abstract: Compression therapy, a well-recognized treatment for lymphoedema and venous disorders, pressurizes limbs and generates massive non-noxious afferent sensory barrages. The aim of this study was to study whether such afferent activity has an analgesic effect when applied on the lower limbs, hypothesizing that larger compression areas will induce stronger analgesic effects, and whether this effect correlates with conditioned pain modulation (CPM). Thirty young healthy subjects received painful heat and pressure stimuli (47°C for 30 seconds, forearm; 300 kPa for 15 seconds, wrist) before and during 3 compression protocols of either SMALL (up to ankles), MEDIUM (up to knees), or LARGE (up to hips) compression areas. Conditioned pain modulation (heat pain conditioned by noxious cold water) was tested before and after each compression protocol. The LARGE protocol induced more analgesia for heat than the SMALL protocol (P < 0.001). The analgesic effect interacted with gender (P = 0.015). The LARGE protocol was more efficient for females, whereas the MEDIUM protocol was more efficient for males. Pressure pain was reduced by all protocols (P < 0.001) with no differences between protocols and no gender effect. Conditioned pain modulation was more efficient than the compression-induced analgesia. For the LARGE protocol, precompression CPM efficiency positively correlated with compression-induced analgesia. Large body area compression exerts an area-dependent analgesic effect on experimental pain stimuli. The observed correlation with pain inhibition in response to robust non-noxious sensory stimulation may suggest that compression therapy shares similar mechanisms with inhibitory pain modulation assessed through CPM.
authors.affiliation: The Laboratory of Clinical Neurophysiology, Technion Faculty of Medicine, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Liat
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Honigman
authors.affiliation: The Laboratory of Clinical Neurophysiology, Technion Faculty of Medicine, Haifa, Israel.|Institute of Pain Medicine, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Ofrit
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bar-Bachar
authors.affiliation: The Laboratory of Clinical Neurophysiology, Technion Faculty of Medicine, Haifa, Israel.|Department of Neurology, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yarnitsky
authors.affiliation: The Laboratory of Clinical Neurophysiology, Technion Faculty of Medicine, Haifa, Israel.|Department of Neurology, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Elliot
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sprecher
authors.affiliation: The Laboratory of Clinical Neurophysiology, Technion Faculty of Medicine, Haifa, Israel.|Department of Neurology, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Yelena
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Granovsky
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D058128:Compression Bandages; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006358:Hot Temperature / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D035002:Lower Extremity / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D059408:Pain Management / Q000379:methods*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D017288:Pain Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D011312:Pressure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011601:Psychophysics; D012737:Sex Factors; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D055815:Young Adult