EFFICACY OF TRANSCUTANEOUS ELECTRICAL NERVE STIMULATION AND THERAPEUTIC ULTRASOUND IN PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM CHRONIC CERVICAL PAIN

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to search to search the efficacy of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and therapeutic ultrasound in patients suffering from chronic cervical pain. To fulfill the purpose, A total of randomly selected 30 patients with chronic cervical pain aged 20-70 years were selected from the Physiotherapy Center of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar for the present study. The patients were further randomly divided into two groups, in Group-A, patients were treated with Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS), Therapeutic Ultrasound (TUS), followed  by hot pack, massage, therapeutic exercises (shoulder circumduction, pectoral stretching), cervical stretching, cervical isometrics with the recommendation for daily living activities, whereas, in Group-B, the patient s were treated only with hot pack, massage, therapeutic exercises (shoulder circumduction, pectoral stretching), cervical stretching and cervical isometrics with the recommendation for daily living activities.

The outcome measures were Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain, Neck Pain Visual Disability Index (NDI) for disability. The results revealed statistically significant decrease (p<0.001) both in NDI and VAS in patients with cervical pain between pre- and post-intervention in the

 Group-A and B, but Group-A showed significantly superior effects both in NDI (82.88% decrement) and VAS (71.62% decrement) than Group-B. In conclusion, it might be stated that transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and therapeutic ultrasound were found more effective than conventional physiotherapeutic techniques in relieving pain intensity and disability in patients with chronic cervical pain.

Keywords: Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation, Therapeutic Ultrasound, Patients with Chronic Cervical Pain.