Pain reduction with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation after foot surgery

The authors provide statistical evaluation of the effect of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on postoperative pain. A comparison was made to intramuscular (I.M.) and oral (P.O.) analgesic medications required by patients after foot surgery, both with and without the benefit of a TENS unit. Sixty-five postoperative patients who had TENS applied were randomly selected, and their I.M. and P.O. analgesic medications were recorded. This group was compared to a group with the same number of patients from 1 year previously. Patients in the second group were of similar ages and had similar procedures, but without the use of TENS. Compiled data were organized by age and osseous procedure group and compared in both bar and linear graphs. Significant reduction was seen in P.O. analgesic medications for all procedures and ages, and to a lesser extent for I.M. analgesics with an overall patient analgesic medication reduction of 74.9%.