Evaluation of the efficacy of warm salt water foot-bath on patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy: A randomized clinical trial

Abstract

Objectives: Pain relief is one of the main goals of treatment in Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Abzan(foot- bath) is one of the effective ways to relief various types of pain in Persian Medicine (PM). Design: This study is a randomized clinical trial (RCT) conducted on 60 patients of age range within 30 to 70 years, which were randomly divided into three groups. Group A (warm water bath):For one month each night before bedtime, they were asked to sit on a chair with trousers pulled up to about 5 cm above the ankles and both feet immersed in an electrical foot-bath that contained 5 liters of warm tolerable water (between 40 and 45 ° C) for 15 minutes without any massage. In Group B (salt water bath) was added and dissolved 250 grams of powdered mineral salt to their warm water. Other stages were similar to the group A. Group C (control) did not receive any interventions. Patients were evaluated prior to and following the intervention by the Douleur Neuropathique 4 questionnaire (DN4), The McGill Pain questionnaire and The World Health Organization Bref Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire. Results: Decrease in DN4 score level in the salt warm water group was significant while The McGill questionnaire showed a significant decrease of pain level the same group. Conclusions: Application of a specific Abzan (salt water bath) may significantly decrease the pain of DPN patients.