Abstract
Background: Cervical facet joints and neck muscles are common nociceptive pain generator, with neck and shoulder muscles pain, and limited retroflexion. Objective: To test the hypothesis that the portable TENS device would relieve cervical somatic pain. Methods: Forty-four patients with chronic cervical pain patients with somatic pain, but without radicular symptoms were evaluated in a double-blind, prospective, randomized fashion, divided into sham and active groups. The active TENS (TANYXò) or sham device was placed over C7-T1 spinous process, perpendicular to the spine, for 20 min at 12-hour interval during 3 days. The two groups were: placebo group (PG), with a sham device and the active TENS group (TG), which produced a mixed (85 Hz) frequency of stimulation, conventional, and burst. Diclofenac up to three times daily was available. Efficacy measures were pain relief, rescue analgesics and neck disability. Results: The active TENS device induced pain relief after its first application, which persisted during the 3-day treatment. By the end of the TENS application, the capability of rotation, lateral extension and retroflexion was improved (p < 0.05). The pain score and rescue analgesics consumption reduced in the TG (p < 0.01, p < 0.05, respectively), and the mean pain score dropped from 8 to 3 points (p < 0.01). There were no adverse events. Conclusions: Somatic cervical pain and disability improved after active TENS application during the three consecutive days, which persisted upon the 1-month reevaluation.
Highlights
Somatic cervical pain and disability improved after active TENS application during the three consecutive days, which persisted upon the 1-month reevaluation
The local Ethics Committee approved the study protocol, and informed consent was obtained from all patients. In this prospective, randomized, double-blinded, controlled study we studied 44 chronic cervical pain patients without radicular symptoms with insufficient pain relief (visual analogue scale (VAS) > 4) treated with standardized analgesic therapy, with diagnosis of painful neck muscle combined with cervical facet pain
Patients were demographically similar related to age, American Society of Anesthesiology status (ASA), weight, height and gender (p > 0.05, Table 1)
Summary
We tested the hypothesis that the new portable TENS device would relieve cervical pain, both facet and muscle pain, examples of nociceptive somatic pain. Cervical facet joints and neck muscles are common nociceptive pain generator, with neck and shoulder muscles pain, and limited retroflexion. Objective: To test the hypothesis that the portable TENS device would relieve cervical somatic pain. Methods: Forty-four patients with chronic cervical pain patients with somatic pain, but without radicular symptoms were evaluated in a double-blind, prospective, randomized fashion, divided into sham and active groups. Efficacy measures were pain relief, rescue analgesics and neck disability. Results: The active TENS device induced pain relief after its first application, which persisted during the 3-day treatment. Conclusions: Somatic cervical pain and disability improved after active TENS application during the three consecutive days, which persisted upon the 1-month reevaluation
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