High-tone External Muscle Stimulation for Pain Reduction
- Conditions
- Chronic Radicular Back PainLumboischialgiaCervico Brachialgia
- Registration Number
- NCT02151565
- Lead Sponsor
- West German Center of Diabetes and Health
- Brief Summary
Sciatica is a common pain problem that affects not only the patient but also constitutes a socioeconomic burden and thus affects the whole society. So far, current pharmacologic therapies are inadequate for many patients. Therefore, we evaluated application of high-tone external muscle stimulation (HTEMS) compared to transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on radicular pain associated with sciatica.
- Detailed Description
Hospital patients (n=100) with chronic sciatica and stable oral analgesic regimen were included into this randomized controlled cross-over trial. Each intervention was administered for a period of 45 min 5 times within 10 days, with a 3-day wash-out period before cross-over. Health impairments had been assessed using the visual analog scales (VAS) for radicular pain before and after intervention and differences in radicular pain between groups were analysed with the Mann-Whitney test.
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- COMPLETED
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 100
- sciatica due to degenerative spine disorders
- stable oral analgesic regimen
- history of drug or alcohol abuse
- cardiac pacemaker or defibrillator
- pregnancy
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- CROSSOVER
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Back pain 10 days Back pain measured by an 11-point visual analogue scale (VAS) with 0 = none and 10 = worst pain imaginable
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method
Trial Locations
- Locations (2)
St. Vinzenz Krankenhaus
🇩🇪Düsseldorf, Germany
Düsseldorf Catholic Hospital Group
🇩🇪Düsseldorf, Germany
St. Vinzenz Krankenhaus🇩🇪Düsseldorf, Germany