A COMPARISON OF PATIENT-CONTROLLED TRANSCUTANEOUS ELECTRICAL NERVE STIMULATION WITH TRADITIONAL ANALGESICS FOR RELIEF OF POSTOPERATIVE PAIN.
Contributors: Catholic University of America.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 148
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to compare the differences in pain relief following use of two pain relief modalities: patient-controlled transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (PC-TENS) with optional analgesia as desired and traditional analgesics as desired. A second purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between selected patient characteristics and the amount of pain relief achieved by the use of PC-TENS.

Gate control theory (Melzack & Wall, 1965; 1973), was the guiding framework.

A randomized two-group experimental design was used. Subjects were patients at a large mid-Atlantic, metropolitan medical center who met were 18 years of age or older, spoke, read, and understood English, were scheduled for elective abdominal surgery utilizing general anesthesia, and had no major influencing medical conditions.

Patients in the PC-TENS group required significantly fewer doses of analgesic medications than patients in the traditional analgesics group for the relief of postoperative pain. Pain scores on the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the McGill Pain Questionnaire did not differ significantly for the two groups. There were no statistically significant relationships between the desire for control measures and TENS effectiveness as measured by VAS or TENS Evaluation Linear Analogue Scale (TELAS) or between demographic variables and TENS effectiveness as measured by VAS or TELAS.

This study added to evidence that TENS is effective in reducing postoperative pain. Raw data indicated that increasing a patient's control over the threat of pain has beneficial effects even if the reason for this cannot yet be explicated. Replications of this study with modification of the procedure and refinement of the tools are suggested.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-02, Section: B, page: 0473.

Thesis (D.N.SC.)--THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, 1985.

School code: 0043.