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1.What is Electrotherapy?

Ans: Electrotherapy is a physical therapeutic treatment whereby electrical stimulation is applied

to nerves and muscle-motor fibers via electro-pads placed on the skin. There are different types
of electrotherapeutic devices in rehabilitation clinics today, with T.E.N.S. being one of the most
popular options. Electrotherapeutic programs, utilizing prescribed variations in electrical
frequencies and intensities, serve to interrupt, alter or induce specific electrical impulses in order
to affect the perception of pain and/or facilitate wound healing and muscle rehabilitation.
These effects are achieved by:

Reducing localized inflammation

Increasing blood flow

Stimulating muscles

Triggering the release of endorphins, hormones that act as the body's natural analgesic

About Electrotherapy...
At its simplest level electrotherapy can be defined as the treatment of patients by electrical
means. By application this means that electrical forces are applied to the body bringing about
physiological changes for therapeutic purposes. Physical agents like heat, light, sound, and
mechanical modalities used in management of pain and regaining power and mobility. The
modalities include various method of heating or cooling the tissues ultrasound, electromagnetic
radiations, medium and low frequency currents, iontophoresis and phonophoresis.
Low frequency currents: This type of currents alternate at 1 1000 Hz. At this frequency
currents can stimulates both motor and sensory nerves. Faradic type and galvanic type current
used as low frequency current for therapeutic purposes.
Faradic Currents produce a tetnic contraction and that electrical muscle stimulation is usually
achieved by 0.1 1 ms pulses at frequencies between 30 and 100 Hz. Faradism can be used to
facilitate a muscle response and regain normal muscular strength and action. Reduction of
oedema, prevention and loosening of joints adhesion by the application of faradic stimulation is
common.

Ultrasound: This is the production of longitudinal mechanical waves above the audible
range (20 kHz). The frequency used in physiotherapy varies from 0.75 MHz to 3 MHz. These
are produced by distortion of a quartz crystal by a high frequency alternating current.
Physiological effects of ultrasound accelerate the healing process and results in pain relief.
Ultrasound may be

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used in resent soft tissue injuries, back pain, recent and chronic scar tissues, skin grafts and
venous ulcer or pressure sore.

History:
The first medical treatments with electricity in London have been recorded as far back as
1767 at Middlesex Hospital in London using a special apparatus. The same was purchased for St.
Bartholomew's Hospital only ten years later. The record of uses other than being therapeutic is
not clear, however Guy's Hospital has a published list of cases from the earlier 1800s.

Muscle stimulation:
In 1855 Guillaume Duchenne announced that alternating was superior to direct current for
electrotherapeutic triggering of muscle contractions. [4] What he called the 'warming affect' of
direct currents irritated the skin, since, at voltage strengths needed for muscle contractions, they
cause the skin to blister (at the anode) and pit (at the cathode). Furthermore, with DC each
contraction required the current to be stopped and restarted. Moreover, alternating current could
produce strong muscle contractions regardless of the condition of the muscle, whereas DCinduced contractions were strong if the muscle was strong, and weak if the muscle was weak.
Since that time almost all rehabilitation involving muscle contraction has been done with
a symmetrical rectangular biphasic waveform. During the 1940s, however, the U.S. War
Department, investigating the application of electrical stimulation not just to retard and prevent
atrophy but to restore muscle mass and strength, employed what was termedgalvanic exercise on
the atrophied hands of patients who had an ulnar nerve lesion from surgery upon a wound.These
galvanic exercises employed a monophasic wave form, direct current.

Modern Use:
Although a 1999 meta-analysis found that electrotherapy could speed the

healing

of

wounds, in 2000 the Dutch Medical Council found that although it was widely used, there was
insufficient evidence for its benefits. Since that time, a few publications have emerged that seem
to support its efficacy, but data is still scarce.
The use of electrotherapy has been researched and accepted in the field of rehabilitation
(electrical muscle stimulation). The American Physical Therapy Association acknowledges the
use of Electrotherapy for:
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