Tapia-Haro RM, García-Ríos MC, Toledano-Moreno S, Casas-Barragán A, Castro-Sánchez AM, Aguilar-Ferrándiz ME. The complementary effects of galvanic current electrical stimulation associated with conservative treatment to increase vasodilation in patients with Raynaud's phenomenon: a randomized trial.
Clin Rehabil 2020;
34:595-606. [PMID:
32141306 DOI:
10.1177/0269215520907652]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
To analyze the effectiveness of an electrotherapy intervention with galvanic current on symptoms associated with Raynaud's phenomenon.
DESIGN
Single-blind randomized controlled trial, parallel design (1:1 ratio) and intention-to-treat analysis.
SETTING
Virgen de las Nieves Hospital, Granada, Spain.
SUBJECTS
Thirty-four participants with Raynaud's phenomenon, with a mean (SD) age of 43.43 (17.62) years.
INTERVENTIONS
The patients were randomly assigned to a control group with conservative treatment (anti-inflammatory, vasodilatory and analgesic drugs) or an intervention group that received conservative treatment and vasodilatory electrical stimulation during seven weeks, three times/week for a total of 20 sessions.
MAIN MEASURES
The primary outcome was the number of attacks. Secondary outcomes were pain, peripheral blow flow, oxygen saturation, upper limb disability, central sensitization, pain catastrophizing and temperature recovery. All outcomes were assessed at baseline, posttreatment and at two months of follow-up.
RESULTS
The galvanic current electrotherapy group showed significantly greater improvements in the number of attacks (mean difference = 26.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 14.4 to 38.3), pre-cold stress pain (95% CI = 0.6 to 2.4), radial artery blood flow (95% CI = -7.8 ⩾ x ⩽ 1.3), ulnar artery blood flow (95% CI = -8.63 to 0.60), oxygen saturation (95% CI = -1.7 ⩾ x ⩽ -0.29), upper limb disability (95% CI = 1.1 to 22.3), central sensitization (95% CI = 6.7 to 18.2) and temperature recovery (95% CI = -5.7 ⩾ x ⩽ -0.32) than the conservative treatment group.
CONCLUSION
This study suggests that a complementary treatment with galvanic current in combination to conservative approach is superior to conservative applied as isolate, in reducing the clinical manifestations and disability in Raynaud's phenomenon.
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