Silver Spike PintElectro-Therapy(SSPET) means passing electric current through the skin surface with the triangle spike silver coated metal electrode. Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation(TENS) for chronic pain management was first reported by Shealy in 1972. Since 1975, Vanderark and Mograth reported that TENS has had a analgesic effect for the relief of acute postoperative pain. SSPET was reported by Hyoto and Kitade at Edinburg, Scotland. 3rd World Congress on Pain in 1981; It has a number of advantages over traditional narootic medication in postoperative pain management. It does not depress the cardiovascular, respiratory of metabolic system and has no apparent effect on the sensorium. Furthermore it is noninvasive, nontoxic, simple in its application and can be used continuously or intermittently. This study was undertaken to investigate recent reports concerning the use of Silver Spike Point Electro-therapy for the relief of postoperative pain. Sisyt patients undergoing elective Cesarean section were subjected to a standard perianesthetic proctocol by the Department of Anesthesiology at Hanyang University Hospital from March, 1st to August, 31, 1984. The patients were divided into three groups of twenty, designed control, SSP and sham SSP. Postoperative analgesic requirements for each group were compared. The results are as follows; 1) The age distribution ranged from 21 years to 36 yearts. Mean age was 25 years and the body weight ranged from 45kg to 68kg. The mean body weight was 52kg. 2) The incisional area of the Cesarean section was 23 cases (38.3%) of low midline incision and 37 cases(81.7%) of Pfannenstiel incision. 3) There were no remarkable changes in the blood pressure, pulse rate or respiratory rate during before and after SSP administration. 4) The total number of intramuscular doses of Demerol given to the patients in the ward was: control group 94 doses, SSP group 31 doses and sham SSP group 89 doses. The SSP group was statistical different from the other 3 groups when compared by the Student's T-test. 5) In the subjective assessment of each group, their statements were markedly varied. Nevertherless SSP has shown that the analgesic requirement was considerably less than that of the other group. This result means that SSP can be used for the relief of acute postoperative pain. Despite a number of diffidulties encountered during this study, we were primarily concerned with the action mechanism, subjective measurement of pain and standards in the requirment of Demerol. We considered that further investigation should be done in the use of SSP for postoperative analgesia and pain. SSP for postoperative pain management is a useful method that is simple, non-invasive, non-toxic and obtains safe analgesia.
Age Distribution ; Analgesia ; Anesthesiology ; Blood Pressure ; Body Weight ; Cesarean Section ; Chronic Pain ; Electrodes ; Female ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Meperidine ; Pain Management* ; Pain, Postoperative ; Pregnancy ; Respiratory Rate ; Scotland ; Silver* ; Skin ; Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation

OBJECTIVES: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is one of the most important work related musculo-skeletal diseases in Korea. However, there are few epidemiologic studies on the work-related CTS (WR-CTS). This study aimed to investigate the epidemiologic characteristics of WR-CTS in Korea. METHODS: Data obtained from the"CTS Surveillance System". Physician case-reports in the surveillance were used to document patterns of WR-CTS by age, gender, occupation, sign, symptom, working history. RESULTS: Six hundred and seventy-two cases of WR-CTS were ascertained. of which 314 with complete information on occupational history were analyzed. It has been estimated that as many as 72% of all CTS cases are work-related. The highest proportion of WR-CTS was observed in 'elementary occupation workers', followed by 'skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers'. The distributions of WR-CTS cases were similar with respect to age, obesity, and past medical history. The proportion of WR-CTS was higher in females. There was no significant difference in physical examination findings between WR-CTS and non WR-CTS cases. Repetitive work and the inappropriate hand posture seemed to be the risks for WR-CTS. CONCLUSION: WR-CTS is a significant public health problem. The CTS surveillance system is quite useful to elucidate the characteristics of WR-CTS, but it remains of limited use in targeting specific industries and occupations for intervention.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome* ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Female ; Fisheries ; Forestry ; Hand ; Humans ; Korea* ; Obesity ; Occupations ; Physical Examination ; Posture ; Public Health