The use of percutaneous nerve electrostimulation in the palliative ward, review of the latest articles

Abstract

Pain is one of the most common symptoms of palliative patients. The problem of the occurrence of pain and ways of alleviating it have been known since the beginning of medicine. In addition to pharmacotherapy, other non-pharmacological methods, such as transcutaneous nerve electrostimulation (TENS), are increasingly used. The aim of the work was to provide the latest knowledge on the effectiveness of TENS therapy in the palliative ward. The thesis is of a review nature and has been written on the basis of Polish and foreign scientific reports. The material was the latest literature in the field of non-pharmacological methods of pain treatment, care for patients with cancer and palliative wards. We obtained the literature from the Pubmed and Google Scholar search engines. Research to date has not sufficiently demonstrated the importance of TENS effectiveness. Some of them are also carried out on a small group of patients, which also does not give an accurate picture. However, it is often used because of proven features such as: affordability, cost and easy accessibility, and no side effects, and positive, though minor effects seen in palliative wards and more. There are not enough studies yet to sufficiently assess the effectiveness of TENS. Especially in the context of palliative wards, there are few of them. Existing studies are also of little relevance to determine whether TENS therapy is relevant in the light of ever newer methods of treating pain. Nevertheless, it is worth using this method as a supplement to pharmacotherapy, because pain greatly reduces the quality of life of palliative ward patients and is a troublesome problem for them. Therefore, it is worth conducting further research on this subject, following the latest literature data.