The therapeutic use of ultrasound has been investigated in a series of 427 patients with pain, such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, neuralgia (primary or secondary), myalgia, traumatic and skin diseases.
1) Methods:
US-intensity; 2w/cm, 1Mc/s
Moving method, 10 treatments in each patient.
Exposure; 10min.
2) Therapeutic effect in different disease:
In 88 patients with skin disease, sprain, contusion and back myalgia, over 30% of them were cured or improved 100%, In patients with rheumatoid arthritis, cervical spondylosis, neuralgia and tenovaginitis the two third of them were improved excellently. In four patients with acute gouty arthritis, the net result of US-therapy was spectacularly good.
3) Synergistic therapy:
In a series of 128 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, synergistic therapy of intra-articular injection of steroid hormone and US-treatment were given. The effect of intra-articular injection of steroid hormone have shown to be lasted longer than single intra-articular injection, In a series of 50 patients with skin disease, the phonophoretic trial of cream or ointment containing steroid hormone with US-treatment were performed. The therapeutic effect was good to excellent in patients with eczema or dermatitis.
In a series of 28 patients with sprain and contusion, the synergistic therapy of ointment containing heparinoid preparation with US-treatment have been studied in 17 patients. The swelling, pain and subcutaneous hemorrhage in those patients were improved earlier.
4) No appreciable side effect of US-therapy was observed in our study. The US-therapy appears to be important addition to the existing therapeutic armamentarium for diseases we have studied.