Ewa Boerner, Wojciech Rytel, Ewa Bieć, Barbara Ratajczak, Ewa Demczuk-Włodarczyk, Aneta Demidaś; 2005
Background. Low back diseases have developed in recent years as an extraordinarily important social problem, which not only affects vast numbers of people, but is also one of the most frequent cause of sick leaves, premature retirement and even disability. Physiotherapy belongs to recognized and approved treatment methods within which physical medicine plays a large part. One of modern and at present developing methods is electrostimulation with the use of microcurrent. Microcurrent of intensity ranging from 25 and 600 µA and frequency of 0.5-320 Hz was applied in the research. The aim of the research was to assess the efficacy of microcurrents in fighting pain resulting from lumbar degenerative disease in comparison with traditional physiotherapeutic methods, like warmth therapy, ultrasounds and electrical stimulation with high voltage currents.
Material and methods. Research material constituted of 225 patients, where 160 patients were treated with microcurrent and 65 with traditional physiotherapy. Pain level and functional abilities were examined. In assessing the level of pain 10- degree scale applied in Renaissance Physical Therapy was used. Assessment of physical fitness was based on functional tests contained in Lower Quarter Functional Form.
Results. Analysis of efficacy of both methods in reducing pain showed that significant pain decrease was observed in the group of patients where microcurrent method was applied. Comparative analysis proved that before the onset of both microcurrent and traditional electrotherapy the results of functional tests in both groups were similar. After the treatment the differences were significant at the level of p < 0.001, with better results achieved with microcurrent therapy.
Conclusions. 1. Microcurrent therapy is much more effective in reducing pain than traditional method. 2. Significant analgesic effect or complete elimination of pain requires fewer treatment sessions with use of microcurrent therapy than with use of traditional therapy. 3. Microcurrent therapy contributes in a greater degree to improvement of functional state than traditional therapy. 4. No sex differences in effects of both therapies were observed.
Xanya Sofra Weiss
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