Active warming as emergency interventional care for the treatment of pelvic pain

To assess whether local active warming can lessen acute pelvic pain of gynaecological origin compared with traditional methods in a prehospital setting.

Prospective, randomised, single-blinded study. Setting. Prehospital emergency system. Population. Women calling emergency ambulance for pelvic pain.

Women were randomised in two groups: resistive heating (group 1) or passive warming (group 2), each treatment was initiated at the emergency site.

Pain on visual analogue scale (VAS), anxiety and nausea, given as mean (SD).

Prior to the interventions, all women were vasoconstricted and had comparable pain scores. Then, group 1 showed a significant (P < 0.01) reduction in pain (VAS: 72.2 [10.5] mm to 32.4 [18.0] mm), anxiety (VAS: 59.0 [10.9] mm to 37.5 [24.1] mm), nausea (VAS: 42.7 [6.2] mm to 21.6 [5.0] mm) and heart rate (101 [12] beats per minute [bpm] to 59 [8] bpm), as well as in the number of vasoconstricted women (from 19/19 (constricted/dilated) to 2/19 (constricted/dilated)), whereas scores in group 2 remained unchanged. There were no significant changes in blood pressure in either group.

Local warming is an effective emergency care measure for acute pelvic pain.