Background:

A new approach to treatment of musculoskeletal disorders has appeared in physical therapy. The technology is based on the effect of strong pulse electromagnetic field in human tissue (the induction is measured in the units of Tesla). This pilot study examines the analgesic effect of this technology with different diagnoses.

Methods

The therapy was performed with 57 randomly selected patients with chronic and acute pain of musculoskeletal system. Patients had 6 therapies on average, 1–2 times per week, 10–15 minutes according to the selected protocol. We used the combination of the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and the Verbal Numerical Rating Scale (VNRS) to determine the analgesic effect. The super inductive stimulator (the BTL-6000 Super Inductive System, by BTL Industries Ltd.) was used to perform the therapy.

Results

Regardless of diagnoses, the overall decrease of pain was 37.5 %. There was significant pain relief by 46 patients. There was neither improvement nor worsening of pain by 4 out of the total 50 patients. 7 patients were excluded from the study.

Conclusion

We have demonstrated the analgesic effect of a strong pulse electromagnetic field on musculoskeletal pain.

Published in

Rehabilitace a fyzikální lékařství, 2016, Vol. 3(23), p. 142–148