The Comparison of Effect of Electrical Therapy on Hemiplegic Shoulder Pain: Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation versus Interferential Current Therapy

Moon, Jong Yeoung; Lee, Sam Gyu; Rowe, Sung Man; Hong, Kyeong Sik; Park, Seung Jin; Oh, Myung Shin; Cho, Ki Hyun

Abstract

BACKGROUND: To compare the therapeutic effect between transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) and interferential current therapy (ICT) in patients with post-stroke hemiplegic shoulder pain.
METHODS
We constructed the study design with the tertiary hospital-based post-stroke hemiplegic shoulder pain (HSP). We reviewed the hospital recordings of 66 hemiplegic shoulder pain-patients diagnosed by history and physical examination whose mean age was 58.56 +/- 11.68 years, male 46 (69.7%), female 20 (30.3%), the duration of stroke 410.05 +/- 139.54 days. We classified the patients as TENS-treated group (group I) and ICT-treated group (group II) for HSP. We compared the effect of 8 weeks short-term electrical therapy between group I and group II. The HSP patients were treated with excercise treatment and physical therapy common to them except in the difference of the type of electrical therapy. The electrical therapy was applied conventional TENS or ICT once a day five times a week for 8 weeks after 23.6 +/- 57.95 days of stroke onset.
RESULTS
1) The most affected cerebral vessel was middle cerebral artery (59 patients: 89.4%) in hemiplegic shoulder pain-patients. 2) There were significant pain relief from pre-treatment 58.37 +/- 24.19 mm to post-treatment 38.60?7.48 mm of VAS in group I (p<0.001). 3) There were no significant pain relief from pre-treatment 63.04?3.05 mm to post-treatment 54.78 +/- 23.91 mm of VAS in group II (p>0.05). 4) There were no association between the recovery of shoulder pain and the degree of recovery of shoulder flexor muscle strength (p>0.05). transradial intervention, but two cases of hematoma requiring transfusion developed in transfemoral intervention. Length of hospital stay was 3.43 +/- 1.28 days, which was shorter in transradial than that of transfemoral approaches (4.92 +/- 3.21 days, P=0.03), and one day of hospital stay was possible in 9 out of 51 patients (17.6%) in transradial approaches. Transradial approach for coronary intervention will be one of useful and feasible rotes for coronary interventions without major complications.