Effect of Interferential Therapy on Chronic Pain After Inguinal Hernioplasty

Abstract

Introduction: Chronic postoperative pain is strongly related to patient-related factors surgery- related factors. Treatment of chronic groin pain after surgery may be difficult for both the patient and the surgeon and many algorithms have been advocated but none of them has been accepted totally. Interferential Therapy has been used in clinical practice for reducing pain and other symptoms following musculoskeletal injury. This current study was designed to detect the therapeutic efficacy of Interferential Therapy as a method of treatment to reduce chronic post operative pain after inguinal hernia repair. Subjects and Methods: A total of 40 adult male patients were operated upon as inguinal hernioplasty with synthetic mesh repair and their ages were ranged from 30-50 years. Patients were randomly assigned into two equal groups; Group A (Interferential Therapy group) and Group B (Control group). Patients of group A underwent inguinal hernioplasty with synthetic mesh and received the application of interferential therapy over the operative skin incisions in addition they received the routine postoperative analgesia. Regarding the postoperative pain, the assessment approaches were subdivided into 3 main procedures: Visual Analog Scale, prosthesis awareness and physical activity. Results: Total pain score was the sum VAS, prosthesis awareness and physical activity scores. We observed that statistical analysis of total pain scores and the final scores per patient in both groups of this study were statistically significant. Conclusion: Interferential current as a supplement to traditional analgesia in the early postoperative course in hernia repair with mesh seems to be more effective for reducing pain than traditional postoperative analgesia alone. Interferential current therapy is a noninvasive therapy for relief from chronic post-surgical pain. It provides a safe, with minimal side effects and effective alternative to pharmacological approaches to pain control.