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electrotherapy

 
Dictionary: e·lec·tro·ther·a·py   (ĭ-lĕk'trō-thĕr'ə-pē) pronunciation
n., pl., -pies.
Medical therapy using electric currents. Also called electrotherapeutics.


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Sci-Tech Encyclopedia: Electrotherapy
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The use of electric current to treat disease. Electrotherapy is based on principles developed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries following the first demonstration of “animal electricity” by Luigi Galvani in the eighteenth century. See also Electroconvulsive therapy.

Low-frequency electrotherapy

Low-frequency electrotherapy uses relatively weak alternating electric currents. They are delivered by electrodes that are placed under or on the surface of the body and are connected to pulse-shaping circuits that are located inside or outside the body.

Electrodes that stimulate electrically excitable cells, such as those in muscle and nerve tissues, are usually placed directly in or on the tissue by surgery or are inserted through a vein by catheterization. There are many applications for electrode stimulation: irregular heart rhythms can be controlled by pacemakers; muscles, such as those of the diaphragm and urinary bladder, that become paralyzed can be made to contract electrically; and long-term pain can be relieved by implanting electrodes in the spinal canal. Surface electrodes are widely used for temporary relief of pain; for preventing muscle atrophy after injury or immobilization; and for treatment of curvature of the spine, or scoliosis. See also Muscle; Pain.

A wide variety—if not all—of the body's nonexcitable cells alter their function in specific ways and at specific times in response to appropriate, very weak electrical stimuli. Much of the progress in electrotherapy has evolved from the observation that both hard and soft tissues, such as bone and arteries, become electrically charged when they are cyclically deformed by mechanical or hydrodynamic forces. By establishing the patterns and values of those stress-generated voltages in bone, researchers have been able to develop three methods of influencing the behavior of nonexcitable cells that are involved in the repair of nonunited fractures. The first clinical method for treating nonunited fractures employed surgically implanted electrodes. Unfortunately, surgical methods carry a risk of infection, and direct currents can result in adverse electrochemical reactions around the electrodes. Two noninvasive electrical methods have proved effective in altering cellular behavior. The first involves the placement of dynamically charged, insulated plates outside tissue-culture vessels or the fractured limbs of animals. The second method uses one or more coils of wire coupled to a pulse generator to create a weak time-varying magnetic field that penetrates the body, much as radio waves enter a closed building. As the understanding of their mechanisms of action at the cellular and subcellular levels has increased, pulsed electromagnetic fields have been used successfully to treat other problems of bone and its surrounding soft tissue.

Diathermy

Therapy for afflicted deep tissues that do not respond to conventional methods, such as infrared heating or heating pads, can often be achieved with diathermy. Heating results from the electrical resistance of tissue to high-frequency or microwave currents. Increasing the tissue temperature to a range of 106–113°F (41–45°C) increases the physiologic response and therapeutic benefit, which includes increased extensibility of collagen tissues in joint contractures, decreased joint stiffness in rheumatoid arthritis, and pain relief and reduction of muscle spasms through the local action of heat on nerve endings and receptors. Warming can also resolve inflammatory infiltrates, edema, and exudates and increase blood flow in diseased or damaged tissue. Heating has been used in cancer therapy under proper temperature control.

Hyperthermia

Hyperthermia is an experimental method of treating malignant tumors that uses heat alone, heat in combination with ionizing (x-ray) radiation, or heat with chemotherapy. One form of heating involves the application of radio-frequency energy by using methods similar to—but more sophisticated and more carefully controlled than—those in diathermy treatment. The effective temperature range of hyperthermia is very narrow, 108–111°F (42.5–44°C); the benefits are minimal at lower temperatures, and damage to normal cells is probable at higher temperatures. Several mechanisms are thought to account for the selective destruction of tumor cells: (1) selective heating caused by the lower rate of blood flow in tumor tissues; (2) greater sensitivity of tumor cells to heat due to their hypoxic, acidic, and poor nutritional state; (3) synergism of ionizing radiation and hyperthermia due to thermal killing of cells that are hypoxic and are at those critical stages of growth when they are most resistant to radiation; and (4) increase in cell membrane permeability and sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs.


Food and Fitness: electrotherapy
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Forms of physiotherapy that use electrical devices to treat injuries. In most cases, their effects include warming deep tissue. They are potentially hazardous and need expert knowledge for their safe application. See also electric muscle stimulator; diathermy; and ultrasound.

Veterinary Dictionary: electrotherapy
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Treatment of disease by means of electricity. See also diathermy.

Wikipedia: Electrotherapy
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Electrotherapy is the use of electrical energy as a medical treatment[1] In medicine, the term electrotherapy can apply to a variety of treatments, including the use of electrical devices such as deep brain stimulators for neurological disease. The term has also been applied specifically to the use of electrical current to speed wound healing. Additionally, the term "electrotherapy" or "electromagnetic therapy" has also been applied to a range of alternative medical devices and treatments.

Contents

History

Use of electrical apparatus. Interrupted galvanism used in regeneration of deltoid muscle. First half of the twentieth century.

During 1855 Guillaume Duchenne, the developer of electrotherapy, announced that alternating was superior to direct current for electrotherapeutic triggering of muscle contractions.[2] What he called the 'warming affect' of direct currents irritated the skin, since, at voltage strengths needed for muscle contractions, they cause the skin to blister (at the anode) and pit (at the cathode). Furthermore, with DC each contraction required the current to be stopped and restarted. Moreover alternating current could produce strong muscle contractions regardless of the condition of the muscle, whereas DC-induced contractions were strong if the muscle was strong, and weak if the muscle was weak.

Since that time almost all rehabilitation involving muscle contraction has been done with a symmetrical rectangular biphasic waveform. During the 1940s, however, the US War Department, investigating the application of electrical stimulation not just to retard and prevent atrophy but to restore muscle mass and strength, employed what was termed galvanic exercise on the atrophied hands of patients who had an ulnar nerve lesion from surgery upon a wound.[3] These Galvanic exercises employed a monophasic wave form, direct current - electrochemistry.

Current use

Although a 1999 meta-analysis found that electrotherapy could speed the healing of wounds,[4] during 2000 the Dutch Medical Council found that although it was widely used, there was insufficient evidence for its benefits.[5] Since that time, a few publications have emerged that seem to support its efficacy, but data is still scarce. [6]

The use of electrotherapy has been widely researched and the advantages have been well accepted in the field of rehabilitation[7] (electrical muscle stimulation). The American Physical Therapy Association acknowledges the use of Electrotherapy for: [8]

1. Pain management

  • Improves range of joint movement

2. Treatment of neuromuscular dysfunction

  • Improvement of strength
  • Improvement of motor control
  • Retards muscle atrophy
  • Improves local blood flow

3. Improves range of joint mobility

  • Induces repeated stretching of contracted, shortened soft tissues

4. Tissue repair

  • Enhances microcirculation and protein synthesis to heal wounds
  • Restores integrity of connective and dermal tissues

5. Acute and chronic edema

  • Accelerates absorption rate
  • Affects blood vessel permeability
  • Increases mobility of proteins, blood cells and lymphatic flow

6. Peripheral blood flow

  • Induces arterial, venous and lymphatic flow

7. Iontophoresis

  • Delivery of pharmacological agents

8. Urine and fecal incontinence

  • Affects pelvic floor musculature to reduce pelvic pain and strengthen musculature
  • Treatment may lead to complete continence

Electrotherapy is used for relaxation of muscle spasms, prevention and retardation of disuse atrophy, increase of local blood circulation, muscle rehabilitation and re-education electrical muscle stimulation, maintaining and increasing range of motion, management of chronic and intractable pain, post-traumatic acute pain, post surgical acute pain, immediate post-surgical stimulation of muscles to prevent venous thrombosis, wound healing and drug delivery.

Reputable medical and therapy Journals have published peer-reviewed research articles that attest to the medical properties of the various electro therapies. Yet some of the treatment effectiveness mechanisms are little understood. Therefore effectiveness and best practices for their use in some instances are still anecdotal.

Electrotherapy devices have been studied in the treatment of chronic wounds and pressure ulcers. A 1999 meta-analysis of published trials found some evidence that electrotherapy could speed the healing of such wounds, though it was unclear which devices were most effective and which types of wounds were most likely to benefit.[4] However, a more detailed review by the Cochrane Library found no evidence that electromagnetic therapy, a subset of electrotherapy, was effective in healing pressure ulcers[9] or venous stasis ulcers.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, "The IEEE standard dictionary of electrical and electronics terms". 6th ed. New York, N.Y., Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, c1997. IEEE Std 100-1996. ISBN 1-55937-833-6 [ed. Standards Coordinating Committee 10, Terms and Definitions; Jane Radatz, (chair)]
  2. ^ Licht, Sidney Herman., "History of Electrotherapy", in Therapeutic Electricity and Ultraviolet Radiation, 2nd ed., ed. Sidney Licht, New Haven: E. Licht, 1967, Pp. 1-70.
  3. ^ Licht, "History of Electrotherapy"
  4. ^ a b Gardner SE, Frantz RA, Schmidt FL (1999). "Effect of electrical stimulation on chronic wound healing: a meta-analysis". Wound Repair Regen 7 (6): 495–503. doi:10.1046/j.1524-475X.1999.00495.x. PMID 10633009. 
  5. ^ Bouter LM (March 2000). "[Insufficient scientific evidence for efficacy of widely used electrotherapy, laser therapy, and ultrasound treatment in physiotherapy]" (in Dutch; Flemish). Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd 144 (11): 502–5. PMID 10735134. 
  6. ^ Wien Klin Wochenschr. Aug 2002. pp. 21-22. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12602111. 
  7. ^ Robinson AJ, Snyder-Mackler, L. Clinical electrophysiology: electrotherapy and electrophysiologic testing 3rd ed. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2008;151-196, 198-237, 239-274
  8. ^ Alon G et al. Electrotherapeutic Terminology in Physical Therapy; Section on Clinical Electrophysiology. Alexandria, VA: American Physical Therapy Association, 2005
  9. ^ Olyaee Manesh A, Flemming K, Cullum NA, Ravaghi H (2006). "Electromagnetic therapy for treating pressure ulcers". Cochrane Database Syst Rev (2): CD002930. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD002930.pub3. PMID 16625564. 
  10. ^ Ravaghi H, Flemming K, Cullum N, Olyaee Manesh A (2006). "Electromagnetic therapy for treating venous leg ulcers". Cochrane Database Syst Rev (2): CD002933. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD002933.pub3. PMID 16625565. 

Further reading

  • Singh, Jagmohan; "Textbook of Electrotherapy", Ed.1/2005, ISBN 81-8061-384-4; Pub: JAYPEE Brothers Medical Publishers, New Delhi; Cover type: Paperback
  • Nelson, Roger M.; Currier, Dean P.; "Clinical Electrotherapy"; 2nd ed., ISBN 0-8385-1334-4; 422 p. Appleton & Lange, a publishing division of Prentice Hall, c1991 c1987; 3rd ed., ISBN 083851491X;
  • Watkins, Arthur Lancaster, "A manual of electrotherapy.". 2d ed., thoroughly rev. Philadelphia : Lea & Febiger, c1962. 272 p.
  • Scott, Bryan O., "The principles and practice of electrotherapy and actinotherapy". Springfield, Ill., C.C. Thomas, c1959. 314 p. LCCN 60004533 /L
  • Neuroelectric Conference (1969 : San Francisco, Calif.), " Neuroelectric research; electroneuroprosthesis, electroanesthesia and nonconvulsive electrotherapy". Editor, David V. Reynolds and Anita E. Sjoberg. Springfield, Ill., Thomas, 1971. LCCN 75115389 (ed. Selected papers presented at the 1969 Neuroelectric Conference, the second annual conference of the Neuroelectric Society.)

External links


Translations: Electrotherapy
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - elektroterapi

Nederlands (Dutch)
elektrotherapie

Français (French)
n. - électrothérapie

Deutsch (German)
n. - Elektrotherapie

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ιατρ.) ηλεκτροθεραπεία

Italiano (Italian)
elettroterapia

Português (Portuguese)
n. - eletroterapia (f) (Med.)

Русский (Russian)
электротерапия

Español (Spanish)
n. - electroterapia

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - elektroterapi

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
电疗法

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 電療法

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 전기 요법

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 電気療法

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) العلاج بالكهرباء‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮ריפוי בחשמל‬


 
 

 

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Sci-Tech Encyclopedia. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Food and Fitness. Food and Fitness: A Dictionary of Diet and Exercise. Copyright © 1997, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Electrotherapy" Read more
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