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Haemorrhoids disease is one of the most frequently occurring disabling conditions of the anorectum. We re-present the method, advantages and results of using direct current electrotherapy in the treatment of haemorrhoids. Symptomatic grades 1, 2 or 3 internal and mixed haemorroids were treated. Exposure and evaluation was with an operative proctoscope which visualized one-eighth of the anal canal at a time. All diseased segments were treated per visit, indicators of successful treatment were, darkening of the treated segment, immediate shrinking of the haemorrhoid and ceasation of popping sound of gas release at the probe tip. Patients were followed up for two weeks. No bowel preparations, medications, anesthesia nor admission was required. Four hundred and fifty six segments were exposed, 252(55.3%) were diseased. eight patients with either grades 2 or 3 diseases required two treatment visits. The most common symptom was rectal bleeding (94.7%), followed by prolapsed but manually reduced hemorrhoids (68%). Prolapse of tuft of haemorrhoidal tissue with spontaneous return was seen in 59.6%, anal pain in 29.8%, and itching in 3.5%. the median number treated segments per patient was 4. No complication was encountered. All patients treated remained symptom free at a mean duration of follow up of 16 months. Direct current electrotherapy is an effective, painless and safe out-patient treatment method for grades 1 to 3 internal and mixed hemorrhoid disease.

Background Chest pain is one of the most difficult problems to solve after thoracic surgery. Its correct control is often quite difficult, which can cause complications due to an ineffective cough and superficial respiratory movements. Methods This study has been designed with the purpose of studying the value of transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TENS) in the postoperative pain rehabilitation of thoracotomy. A prospective and randomized study has been developed. The patients ( n  = 109) have been treated after hospital discharge with physiotherapy for 3 weeks. Three groups have been established: experimental ( n  = 37), control ( n  = 35), and placebo ( n  = 37), experimental and placebo including the application of TENS during the physiotherapy protocol. Postoperative pain (McGill test) and spirometry have been studied before and after treatment. Results The largest between-group discrepancy occurred between the experimental and control groups, 16.77 points ( p  < 0.001). Spirometry has shown an improvement in FVC (27.11%) and FEV1 (28.68%) ( p  < 0.001) in the experimental group, which was statistically significant compared to the other groups. Conclusion The use of TENS, as an adjunctive treatment to physiotherapy, leads to an improvement in pain control and spirometry values in patients after thoracic surgery, without producing side effects with the technique. These findings provide physiological evidence for the use of TENS in post-pulmonary surgery and may form the basis for the development of pain managed-based programs in clinics and hospitals. Trial registration NCT04964973 (ClinicalTrials.gov). First registration: July 16, 2021. Protocol: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04964973 .

Purpose The purpose was to investigate the effects of long-wave diathermy in combination with interferential currents (interferential therapy and long-wave diathermy at high power (ITH)) in comparison with long-wave diathermy at a power below the active treatment dose (long-wave diathermy at low power (LDL), control group) on sensory and motor symptoms in patients with chronic chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) in the lower extremities. Methods Sixty-seven patients with chronic CIPN were randomized to 12 weeks of either ITH or LDL. Follow-up assessments were performed after the treatment period and at 37 weeks after randomization. The primary outcome was pain (Numeric Rating Scale (NRS)), and the secondary outcomes were discomfort, nerve symptoms, subjective measurement of dizziness (Dizziness Handicap Inventory), and balance. Differences within and between groups were analyzed. Results Pain intensity decreased significantly only in the LDL group directly after the treatment period from NRS median 25 to median 12.5 ( P  = 0.017). At the 37-week follow-up, no changes were detected, irrespective of group (NRS 13 vs. 20, P  = 0.885). Discomfort decreased significantly in both groups at both 12 and 37 weeks after the baseline ( P  < 0.05). Balance disability showed significant declines in both groups at 12 and 37 weeks ( P  = 0.001/0.025 in the ITH group vs P  = 0.001/<0.001 in the LDL group). Balance ability (tightened Romberg test) increased significantly at both 12 and 37 weeks in both groups ( P  = 0.004/<0.040 in the ITH group) but did not improve in the LDL group at any of the follow-up time points ( P  = 0.203 vs P  = 0.383). The one-legged stance test was unchanged in the ITH group after 12 weeks but improved 37 weeks after baseline ( P  = 0.03). No significant changes were observed in the LDL group at any of the follow-up time points. Conclusion This study provides no support for the use of a combination of long-wave diathermy and ITH as a treatment option for patients with chronic CIPN. However, the chronic CIPN symptoms decreased with time irrespective of the treatment.

Electrotherapy is considered a very effective and safe therapeutic method. Its most frequently described adverse effect is the impairment of cognitive functions. Currently, the most commonly applied form of electrotherapy are bitemporal procedures and the most frequent and best-studied indication for its application are depressive disorders. A method combining high effectiveness with satisfactory safety is the bifrontal application of the electrodes, although study results are often inconsistent. An issue which should also be noted is the lack of studies comparing the effectiveness of bifrontal and bitemporal procedures in the reduction of positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia and assessing the safety of these methods in terms of the influence on cognitive functions. The present paper presents a clinical description of four patients with schizophrenia who have undergone electrotherapy procedures performed applying the bifrontal method. The decisive indication for applying the bifrontal procedures were the memory disturbances the persistence of which was reported by the patients during the application of bitemporal procedures. The analysed clinical cases indicate the effectiveness of the bifrontal electrotherapy procedures which was comparable with the effectiveness of bitemporal procedures with the simultaneous better toleration of the former. Improvement was observed in terms of paranoid, catatonic and negative schizophrenia symptoms. At the same time the patients reported subjectively better tolerance of the procedures, as well as improvement in the recalling of facts and events.

We investigated the effects of microamperage electrical stimulation (MES) on the healing of skin incision in rabbits. Thirty male adult rabbits were randomly divided into sham-treated and experimental groups. Each group was divided into three subgroups, based on the duration of experiment (4, 7, and 15 days). A full-thickness incision was made on the skin of each rabbit. The experimental group received an MES of 200 microamperes current intensity for 2 h/day. Morphometrical and biomechanical evaluations were carried out. The mean number of fibroblasts at day 7 and the mean of tensile strength at day 15 were found to be significantly higher for the experimental group than for those in the sham-treated group (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively). Daily application of MES significantly accelerated the wound-healing process of full-thickness incision in the rabbits' skin.