EFFECT OF TRANSCUTANEOUS ELECTRICAL NERVE STIMULATION ON POST - OPERATIVE PAIN FOLLOWING A CARDIAC SURGERY- A PILOT STUDY

Background: Pain has been pointed out as one of the chief concerns of patients following a cardiac surgery. Adjunctive methods of postoperative pain control that may limit narcotic side effects are of considerable interest. The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation ( TENS) for treatment of post-operative pain in patients who underwent cardiac surgery using a median sternotomy. In addition, we sought to compare effectiveness of TENS and SHAM (placebo) TENS on Pain at rest Duration Of analgesia following the intervention. Methods: Twenty patients (8 females and 12 males) each during the 24-96hr post-operative period were a part of the study. They were randomly allocated to two groups: TENS & pharmacological analgesia (n = 10) and SHAM & pharmacological analgesia (n = 10). The Visual Analogue Scale (0 - 10) was used to assess the post-operative peri-incisional pain. Results: It was seen that both TENS and SHAM TENS (P value is 0.0917) were almost equally effective in reducing peri-incisional pain following a cardiac surgery through a median sternotomy. However, the duration of analgesia following treatment with TENS was significantly greater than that with SHAM TENS. Conclusion: Therefore both TENS and SHAM TENS can be used as a valuable strategy to alleviate postoperative suture site pain following a cardiac surgery, both clinically and statistically, but the duration of analgesia following TENS is significantly greater than that following SHAM TENS.