Neuromuscular electrical stimulation as an adjunctive therapy to drotaverine hydrochloride for treating patients with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome A retrospective study

This retrospective study investigated the effectiveness and safety of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) as an adjunctive therapy to drotaverine hydrochloride (DHC) in patients with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (BP-IBS). A total of 108 patient cases with BP-IBS were included in this study. Of these, 54 cases were assigned to a treatment group and received NMES and DHC, whereas the other 54 subjects were assigned to a control group and underwent DHC alone. All patients were treated for a total of 4 weeks. Primary outcomes were measured by the visual analog scale (VAS), and average weekly stool frequency. Secondary outcome was measured by the Bristol scale. In addition, adverse events were documented. All outcome measurements were analyzed before and after 4-week treatment. Patients in the treatment group did not show better effectiveness in VAS (P=.14), and average weekly stool frequency (P=.42), as well as the Bristol scale (P=.71), compared with the patients in the control group. Moreover, no significant differences in adverse events were found between 2 groups. The results of this study showed that NMES as an adjunctive therapy to DHC may be not efficacious for patients with BP-IBS after 4-week treatment.