Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation and Acupuncture : Quality of Post – Operative Analgesia and Effects on Pulmonary Functions and Haemodynamics

Abstract

It is an indictment of modern medicine that an apparently simple problem such as the reliable relief of post-operative pain rc.:mains largely unsolved. In a study of acute pain of various causes, three- quarters of the patients who received narcotics for sc.:verc pain continued to experience pam. These findings have been confirmed in adults and in children by other studies. The present w6rk is a comparative randomized study that compan:d TENS, acupuncture and PCA as regard quality or post­ operative analgesia and their effect on haemoclynamics and pulmonary functions 1n patients undergoing surgical cholecystectomy. One hundred thirty-eight adult patients were chosen according to the .'\merican Society of Anaesthesiology 1 ASA and 21, ranging in age between 20 to 40 years and divided into three groups allocated randomly to either TENS, acupuncturt:: m narcotics, to relief post-operative pain after cholecystectomy.