An effective treatment option for pain caused by urolithiasis: A randomised-controlled trial of local active warming...

There is growing interest in physical medicine treatment options for renal colic. In this study, we aimed to determine whether or not heat-patch treatment with no drug was effective in relieving renal colic.

For this purpose, patients who were diagnosed with renal colic in the emergency department were randomised to have either heat-patch or sham treatment. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores of renal colic, body temperature (Btemp), and sub-patch skin temperature (Stemp) values were measured at 0, 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes. In addition, the salvage treatment needs of the groups were compared.

The average age of the study group was 30.5 ± 8.3 years and that of the sham group was 31.0 ± 8.2 years (P = .75). According to the baseline VAS score of the patients, 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes VAS scores significantly decreased in the heat-patch group (P < .001). The Btemp values did not differ significantly between the heat-patch and sham groups. In addition, no statistically significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of Stemp values at 0 and 15 minutes (P = .39 and P = .10, respectively). However, there was a significant difference in the heat-patch group in terms of Stemp values at 30, 45, and 60 minutes compared with the sham group (P < .001). The salvage treatment rates for the heat-patch and sham groups were 11.5% and 31.4%, respectively (P = .01).

As non-pharmaceutical treatment, the heat-patch has been shown to be a possible candidate for pain relief in patients with urolithiasis. Further research should concentrate on multicentre and large scale randomised studies.