Thanks for the reply.
I agree as I have already described that electrotherapy should not be used in isolation but it should be used as a part of treatment plan and shoudl not be used in isolation as a treatment remedy. There are studies out there that supports the use of electrotherapy and there are studies out there that disagree upon the use of electrotherapy modalities. The studies which question the use of electrotherapy modalities are also questioned as they do not corrsponds to the clinical experience. More work is needed to resolve this difference between clinical studies and clinical experience. Let's have a look over that.
TENS- Eveidence based study
TENS is used extensively in health care to manage
painful conditions because it is cheap, safe
and can be administered by patients themselves.
Success with TENS depends on appropriate
application and therefore patients and therapists
need an understanding of the principles of
application.Systematic reviews of RCTs report that
there is weak evidence to support the use of
TENS in the management of postoperative and
labour pain. However, these findings have been
questioned as they contrast with clinical experience
and it would be inappropriate to dismiss
the use of TENS in acute pain until the reasons
for the discrepancy between experience and
published evidence is fully explored.Efficacy of the Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation for the Treatment of Chronic Low Back Pain: A Meta-Analysis.Systematic
reviews are more positive about the effectiveness
of TENS in chronic pain. However, betterquality
trials are required to determine
differences in the effectiveness of different types
of TENS and to compare the cost effectiveness of
TENS with conventional analgesic interventions
and other electrotherapies.
Randomized Trial Comparing Interferential Therapy With Motorized Lumbar Traction and Massage in the Management of Low Back Pain in a Primary Care Setting.This meta-analysis lacked data on how TENS efficacy is affected by four important factors: type of applications, site of application, treatment duration of TENS, and optimal frequencies and intensities.
Therapeytci Application of electromanetic PowerThis study shows a progressive fall in Oswestry Disability Index and pain visual analog scale scores in patients with low back pain treated with eitherinterferential therapy or motorized lumbar traction and massage.
Electrical Stimulation for PainRecent research has shown that the use of the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) frequency of 915 MHz is more efficient than the currently used 2450-MHz microwave frequency in terms of maximum power transfer to deep tissues. The results also show that in addition to thermal applications, microwave energy can be used for the controlled transcutaneous stimulation of nerve action potentials via implanted miniature microwave diodes.
The Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Technology Assessment evaluated the clinical value of TENS in pain management and concluded that there is little evidence of the effectiveness of TENS in treating chronic painIt has been claimed that IFS is highly effective in reducing (i) pain and use of pain medications, (ii) edema and inflammation, (iii) healing time, as well as in improving (i) range of motion, (ii) activity levels, and (iii) quality of life. However, there are very few well designed studies such as randomized, double blind, controlled clinical trials that support such claims. Low (1988) stated that in spite of widespread agreement among physiotherapists that IFS has a marked pain relieving effect, there is a paucity of objective investigations into this analgesic effect. He claimed that both the therapeutic and physiological effects of interferential currents require further investigation.In a Cochrane review on pulsed electric stimulation for the treatment of OA (Hulme et al, 2002), the authors stated that current evidence suggests that electrical stimulation therapy may provide significant improvements for knee OA, but further studies are required to confirm whether the statistically significant results shown in these trials confer clinically significant and durable benefits.