Effectiveness of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation on Pain and Disability Among Patients with Hip Arthroplasty: A Randomized Control Study

Abstract

Background: Pain after surgery is highly inevitable, and the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) has been reported with side effects. Objectives: This study evaluated the effectiveness of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on pain intensity and disability of patients who underwent hip arthroplasty. Methods: A purposive sampling technique was used to recruit 56 subjects that underwent hip arthroplasty. They were randomly allocated to the TENS group (TG) and control group (CG) equally. The subjects in the TG group were treated with conventional TENS twice a day for three weeks, but the CG group was treated with normal drugs only. Pain intensity and hip disability were measured in both groups with the Visual Analogue scale (VAS) and Oxford hip score before the treatment and after the intervention, respectively. Results: The results showed that there was a significant reduction between the pre-treatment and post-treatment pain intensity (t = 3.83, P = 0.003) and hip disability (t = -4.45, P < 0.001) in the TG group. A significant reduction was also observed in pain intensity (t = 3.16, P = 0.01) and hip disability (t = -6.71, P = 0.000) between the pre-treatment and post-treatment periods in the CG group. There was a significant reduction in post-treatment pain intensity (t = 10, P = 0.000) and hip disability (t = -3.51, P = 0.006) when the TG group was compared with the CG group. Conclusions: TENS was effective in the management of acute post-surgical pain and disability of patients with hip arthroplasty.