What is Electroanalgesia?
Electroanalgesia (elec·tro·an·al·ge·sia) is defined by Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, 2nd Edition as:
“Analgesia that is induced by the passage of an electric current”.
Electroanalgesia is also defined by Dorland’s Medical Dictionary as:
“The reduction of pain by electrical stimulation of a peripheral nerve or the dorsal column of the spinal cord”.
Despite the obvious benefits of pharmaceutical drug therapy for pain management, undesired side effects, as well as chemical addiction problems, have created serious concerns for physicians and insurance companies.
That is why we sought the input of experienced medical practitioners and combined their ideas with advanced technology, resulting in a carefully planned and state-of-the-art medical pain management system. This advanced pain management system is user friendly and is programmed to deliver the precise dosage to treat your patients with pain with the push of a button. Dynamic medical specialties, such as Universities and clinical pain management physicians, have seen a significant change in therapeutic approach over the past decade.
Numerous controlled research investigations have directed the astute medical community toward more non-invasive medical interventions, such as clinical electoanalgesia to manage or mitigate patient pain. Electroanalgesic treatments are different from the portable TENS device (1-250 pulses per second) primarily because it uses electrical frequencies that are much higher, above 8,000 pulses per second (pps) to as high as 10,000 pps. This electrical energy is delivered deeper into the patients tissue due to a lowered skin resistance. The effect of higher frequencies is the ability not to stimulate or to facilitate the nerves, but to inhibit the pain signal.
Why not use this Technology?
More than 40 million people are affected with musculoskeletal pain, resulting in more than 300 million physician visits and costing hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
For example, low back pain is a major medical problem. Worldwide, from 60 to 80% of people will have it during their lifetime and 2% to 5% will have it at any given time. In the United States, low back pain is one of the most common problems for which people visit a doctor and is the most common cause of disability under the age 45.
In the last several years, health policymakers, health professionals, regulators, and the public have become increasingly interested in the provision of better pain therapies. This is evidenced in part by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ dissemination of Clinical Practice Guidelines for the management of pain.
The History of Electromedicine?
A wide variety of medical conditions have been successfully treated with electrical stimulation for nearly 2,000 years. Electro medicine gained wider acceptance in our day when Canadian psychologist Ronald Melzack and British physiologist Patrick Wall published their influential findings on the Gate Control Theory of Pain (Science 150, 1965).
These scientists found that certain cells in the spinal cord act as gates through which pain signals travel to the brain. Overloading these neural transmitter cells will block the naturally occurring electrochemical pain impulses and thus relieve pain. The Gate Control Theory was accepted by the medical community and helped establish the use of transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) in the United States.
Since that time, NeuroMed has refined and perfected electro medical processes to the point where comprehensive electroanalgesic medicine has emerged as an important adjunct discipline in the management and control of pain.
Although electro medicine may seem like a new technology to many practitioners, it is actually one of the oldest and most documented medical sciences known. Cellular function has long been known and accepted to be influenced by specific bioelectric fields.
The science of clinical electro medicine is based upon the concept that any medical therapy, regardless of the specialty or avenue of approach, can only stimulate, facilitate, or inhibit electrical or chemical processes in the body.
Is this a T.E.N.S. home unit?
A T.E.N.S. unit in many cases is an external device that reduces pain by applying low voltage electricity with electrodes placed over the skin.
T.E.N.S. effects in bioelectric procedures and treatments are biophysiological effects that are induced by repeated synchronous action potentials in excitable cells (1 to 250 pps — pulses per second). This involves membrane depolarization and repolarization activity. (Gate control theory of Pain, Science 150., 1965; Melzack and Wall)
These effects in bioelectric procedures and treatment are biophysiological effects that are induced by repeated synchronous action potentials in excitable cells (1 to 250 pps — pulses per second). This involves membrane depolarization and repolarization activity.
These are signals that are so fast that they cannot be physiologically followed by the nervous system (multiple stimulations falling within the absolute refractory period of the cell membrane). These signals must be faster than 2,000 pps and are used for stopping or interrupting the axon transport of the action impulse.
A Revolutionary Approach to Pain Management
Pain is a major medical problem. Worldwide, from 60 to 80% of people will have it during their lifetime and 2% to 5% will have it at any given time. In the United States, low back pain is one of the most common problems for which people visit a doctor [1] and is the most common cause of disability under age 45. The total annual cost in the United States for health care and lost productivity is nearly $120 billion.(NIH/ACPA source material) However, only 10% of the patients account for 90% of the cost. Thus, its management and its impact on our workforce are a major drain on the American economy. Our approach to this disease must be changed.
Pain has been a central focus of medicine throughout history. A wide variety of medical conditions have been successfully treated with electrical stimulation for nearly 2,000 years. The first reported application of electro medicine was by medical doctors in ancient Greece. Using electrical impulses for the treatment for pain and circulation disorders, Largus and Dioscorides learned that an electric ray in a foot bath relieved gout pain (Scribonius Largus in 46 AD). Largus and Dioscorides then championed electrotherapy shocks from torpedo fish to limit pain from neuralgia, headache, and arthritis.
In the 1700s, European physicians used controlled electrical treatments for a wide variety of conditions. They employed electrostactic generators and Leyden jar condensers to treat pain and circulatory disorders. During that period, Benjamin Franklin documented pain relief by using electric shock to treat frozen shoulder.
In Victorian England, Dr. Golding Bird designed an induction coil for neurological conditions and encouraged many English physicians to apply this treatment. The practice spread during the next half century.
By the late 1800’s, more than 50% of All-American physicians used some form of electro medicine in their practices daily for pain management and wound healing. This continued until 1910, when a misleading report was published which discredited the value of electro medicine and nutritional therapy in the human body. This report was responsible for the decline in the use of electro medicine in the physician’s private practice.
The modern age of electro medical treatment, however, began about 1950 when a medical company in Germany developed more sophisticated electrical equipment. These devices provided different types of electric current allowing for medical treatments to be applied safely and comfortable to the human skin, while the benefits could be delivered to deep tissue using interferential therapy i.e. shoulder, hip, and low back.
Interferential current is widely used by medical and healthcare professionals across the globe. Virtually all large, stationary electro medical units found in doctors offices, healthcare facilities, and hospitals worldwide today are interferential systems. Despite its broad acceptance, American physicians are now only beginning to employ interferential treatment.
As a matter of difference, where TENS (home units) impulses are 0 to 250 pulses per second (also known as Hz), interferential current operates at the higher frequencies of 4000 and 4100 Hz. Crossing these currents provides electrical interference at the difference, 100 Hz. This pure alternating current moves through skin quickly and comfortably to relieve pain.
Electro medical treatment gained wider acceptance in the 1960s, when Melzak and Wall charted the central Gate Control Theory of Pain. These medical researches found that certain cells in the spinal cord act as a gate through which pain travels to the brain. Melzak and Wall proposed that overloading these neural transmitter cells would block pain impulses, close the pain gate, and thus relieve pain.
The Gate Control Theory legitimized electro medical treatment and popularized a form called TENS, or transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation. TENS units are typically associated with a portable battery-operated devices whose electrodes are strapped to the back or other site of pain and can be worn continuously to apply current and relieve pain.
Electroanalgesia is using two identical pure sinusoidal medium-frequency currents (above 8,000 pps to as high as 10,000 pps) with specific phase orientation. This results in a new current that is unidirectional aimed into the depths of tissue.
Historically, most electro medical treatments or electric stimulation therapies were developed in Europe, accepted by the medical establishment in Europe, and transferred with varying degrees of speed and acceptance to the United States. Today, more American physicians are employing Electro Analgesic medical treatment to relieve pain and circulatory conditions.
Only in the last fifteen years have these valuable treatments regained acceptance in the medical community and are now being taught in medical teaching facilities such as the King-Drew Medical Center, in Los Angeles, Ca. and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. The Bethesda Naval Hospital in Washington, D.C. is now successfully using electro medicine as an effective treatment for pain management. Physicians are finding it a valued option to drug therapy which can be costly, addictive, can cause side effects like stomach irritation, and is sometimes ineffective. They are finding Electro Analgesia medical treatment a valued option to surgery which is invasive, has high cost, and is sometimes ineffective.
Electro medicine has evolved into Electroanalgesic Medicine. Electroanalgesic Medicine involves the use of higher frequencies above 8,000 pps to as high as 10,000 pps. When using the correct dosage and electrodes, these specialized medical devices, can safely and effectively treat many pain and circulatory conditions. A patient can expect potent analgesia.
Finally, Electroanalgesia and interferential therapy can be applied in a rapid alternation (program mode). This provides all known electro medical effects in one treatment.
Weve come a long way since Socrates colleagues placed electric rays in footbaths to ease gout pain. Electroanalgesic Medical treatment is a well-documented path where physicians break the limitations of drug therapy and surgery to comfort their patients.
