Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation for post-Cesarean section analgesia

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Physiotherapeutic resources, such as transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation, used in the post-partum period are important to promote relief of pain and discomfort induced by surgical incision, thus decreasing hospitalization time and hospital costs with the use of drugs. This study aimed at measuring pain at Cesarean section incision before and after transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation. METHODS: This is a clinical, randomized study with blind evaluator and comparative analysis between groups. Participated in the study 60 mothers in the postpartum period of Cesarean section, who were equally distributed between intervention group (IG) and control group (CG), where the intervention group has received transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation for 30 minutes, with frequency of 100Hz and pulse width of 100ms. Visual analog scale was used as evaluation tool. RESULTS: When comparing pain intensity with the visual analog scale before and after electric stimulation, there has been statistical difference (p=0.001), since pre-stimulation pain median was 45.00 (36.00-60.00) and post-stimulation median was 15.50 (5.75-27.50). When comparing groups before intervention there has been no difference between them with regard to pain evaluated by the visual analog scale (p=0.948). Mean for CG was 47.70 (25.03) and for IG it was 48.10 (22.33). When comparing final results between groups did not significant difference (p=0.047), where CG median was 30.50 (13.50-53.25) and IG median was 15.50 (5.75-27.50). CONCLUSION: Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation is effective to relieve acute pain in the postoperative period of Cesarean section, thus making postpartum women more independent and active to perform their daily life activities.