Transcutaneous Electrical

• Sep 19, 2024

Transcutaneous Electrical

It is one of the electrical stimulation techniques whose main goal is to temporarily relieve some symptomatic pain by stimulating sensory neurons. TENS units operate by providing tiny electrical impulses through electrodes that are attached to a person’s skin with adhesive pads. This overflow of electrical impulses impairs the nervous system’s capacity to communicate pain messages to the brain and spinal cord.

A painful physical or chemical stimulus stimulates peripheral receptors, which are then transmitted by peripheral nerves to the spinal cord, up the cord, through the brainstem, and finally to the cerebral cortex, where the pain is felt by the conscious level. The modulation of pain is accomplished through the inhibition of impulses as they travel from the synapses along this path to the cortex.

Chemicals released during tissue damage or those that accumulate as a result of metabolic activity can trigger nociceptive nerve endings, generating an electrical potential. The quantity of chemicals present determines the level of excitement that is generated. It is hypothesized that removing these chemicals may help lower the intensity of nociceptive stimulation, and that physiotherapeutic agents (ice and heat) that influence circulation may facilitate this.Either a slower myelinated Ad (delta) fiber or a quicker unmyelinated C fiber transports the nociceptive stimulus to the cord. Both will ultimately pass through the posterior route and enter the cord. Theoretically, a physiological block of conduction could happen if a greater frequency of stimulation is given because both of these fibers have a maximum frequency at which they can conduct. TENS creates the necessary energy and thus has this result.

It is ideal if the skin beneath the electrodes is in a sensory-mechanism-intact state because the impact on pain is generated by the large-diameter afferent sensory stimulation caused by the TNS current acting on the skin. Setting the parameters will allow the TENS to be administered after the electrodes have been placed.

On the patient’s epidermis, vacuum electrodes or rubber electrodes are strapped or fixed with adhesive tape, covered in conductive gel. Clothing can hide the wires that link the electrodes to the device.