
The Effect of Simultaneous Application of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) on Specific Lumbar and Acupuncture Points on Labour Pain Relief: A Randomised Clinical Trial
Correspondence Address :Seyedeh Hajar Sharami,
Reproductive Health Research Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Al-zahra Hospital, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
E-mail: sharami@gums.ac.ir
Introduction: Labour pain is among the most challenging experiences a woman could face during life. Non Pharmacological modalities like Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) are rather new methods, introduced for relieving this pain.
Aim: To investigate the effect of concurrent use of TENS application on the labour pain relief.
Materials and Methods: This is a double-blind randomised clinical trial study where, a total of 104 eligible pregnant women qualified for normal vaginal delivery. They were randomly divided into four groups treated with Lumbar-TENS or Acupuncture points-TENS as A: both inactive (placebo group), B: Active Acupuncture points TENS, C: Active Lumbar TENS and D: both active. TENS was applied on four points of toraco-lumbo sacral, while Acupuncture points-TENS was applied on Hegu and Sanyinjiao points. The pain scores were evaluated by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) criteria, four times during the study for each individual. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the final impression of the subjects about the TENS method. The groups were compared using chi-square or Kruskal Wallis test. The trend of pain score over the study time points were assessed using Generalised Estimating Equation (GEE).
Results: The mean age of the women were 27.86±5.92 years. There were no significant differences between the groups based on the pain scores over the study periods (p-value=0.588). There was a statistically significant difference between groups for satisfaction about the procedure and the placebo group had the lowest rate of tendency to reuse TENS at the future Labour (74%) compared to the other three groups (93-100%) (p-value=0.046).
Conclusion: Lumbar or Acupuncture points-TENS had no significant relieving effects on Labour pain among the participants.
Hegu and sanyinjiao acupuncture, latent phase, Pain relief
DOI: 10.7860/JCDR/2020/45744.14152
Date of Submission: Jul 03, 2020
Date of Peer Review: Jul 14, 2020
Date of Acceptance: Sep 01, 2020
Date of Publishing: Oct 01, 2020
AUTHOR DECLARATION:
• Financial or Other Competing Interests: None
• Was Ethics Committee Approval obtained for this study? Yes
• Was informed consent obtained from the subjects involved in the study? Yes
• For any images presented appropriate consent has been obtained from the subjects. NA
PLAGIARISM CHECKING METHODS:
• Plagiarism X-checker: Jul 04, 2020
• Manual Googling: Aug 18, 2020
• iThenticate Software: Sep 29, 2020 (5%)
ETYMOLOGY: Author Origin
- Emerging Sources Citation Index (Web of Science, thomsonreuters)
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- Academic Search Complete Database
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
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- EBSCOhost
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- HINARI Access to Research in Health Programme
- Indian Science Abstracts (ISA)
- Journal seek Database
- Popline (reproductive health literature)
- www.omnimedicalsearch.com