A COMPARITIVE STUDY BETWEEN THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LOW TENS AND HIGH TENS IN OSTEOARTHRITIS OF TIBIOFEMORAL

SUNIL K.M.; PRAMOD KSHIRASAGAR; SANJAY PARMAR; GANUKUMAR WADHOKAR

Volume : VI, Issue : II, February - 2017

A COMPARITIVE STUDY BETWEEN THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LOW TENS AND HIGH TENS IN OSTEOARTHRITIS OF TIBIOFEMORAL

Sunil K. M. , Pramod Kshirasagar, Sanjay Parmar, Ganukumar Wadhokar

Abstract :

Background: Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disorder of synovial joints characterised by focal loss of articular cartilage with reactive changes in sub– chondral, marginal bone and synovial. Pain is the usual presenting symptom, though starts insidiously it increases slowly over months or years. It is aggravated by exertion and relieved by rest, it is worst at night when patient is in bed. Pain in osteoarthritis occurs due to stretching of fiosed part of capsule muscular fatigue increase in bone pressure due to vascular congestion and intraosseous hypertension. Since till date there is no curative treatment for osteoarthritis, the primary goal for osteoarthritis are to relieve pain, maintain or improve functional status and minimize deformity. Study objective:Implementation of high TENS and low TENS for each group of patients with unilateral tibiofemoral osteoarthritis. Methodology: All the subjects who were diagnosed to have idiopathic, mild to moderate unilateral involvement of tibiofemoral osteoarthritis were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study. The subjects were randomly divided into groups. Group A (Low TENS group); received frequency of 8 Hz, pulse width 0.5 ms, intensity up to patients tolerance for 20 minutes twice daily. Group B (high TENS); received frequency of 100 Hz, pulse width 0.5 ms, intensity upto patients perception duration for 20 minutes twice daily. Both the group patients were asked to do exercises like isometric quadriceps, short arch terminal knee extension, strengthening exercises for quadriceps and hamstrings. Results and Discussion: This study is carried out to evaluate and compare the effect of high verses low TENS, the analysis of data collected reveals that there is not much significant change between the applications of high or low TENS with regard to the outcome. The analysis reveals that low TENS produces a greater average improvement with regard to pain but responds lesser to increase in functional abilities and ROM in patients with osteoarthritis. The high TENS produces greater improvement in functional capacities and ROM, the improvements are not consistent with staggeringly high standard deviation.