The fertility potential of infertile men can be enhanced to a great extent by the application of assisted reproduction techniques such as intrauterine insemination or in-vitro fertilization with or without intracytoplasmic sperm injection, but how to obtain semen from men with ejaculatory dysfunction remains a problem. The development and refinement of penile vibratory stimulation (PVS) and electroejaculation (EEJ) have significantly brightened the prospects for the treatment of ejaculatory dysfunction. Because vibratory stimulation is non-invasive and easy to perform, and needs no anaesthesia, it is preferred by most of the patients to EEJ, and recommended to be the first choice of treatment for ejaculatory dysfunction. Approximately 80% of all ejaculatory dysfunction men with an intact ejaculatory reflex arc (above T10 ) can obtain antegrade ejaculation by PVS. Any condition which affects the ejaculatory mechanism of the central and/or peripheral nervous system including surgical nerve injury may be treated successfully by EEJ. The purpose of this review is to present the current understanding of PVS and EEJ procedures and their clinical use in men with ejaculatory dysfunction.
Ejaculation ; Electric Stimulation Therapy ; Humans ; Infertility, Male ; therapy ; Male ; Vibration ; therapeutic use

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of inversion-table in the treatment of lower pole renal stones.

METHODSFrom March 2006 to September 2008, 36 patients with lower pole renal calculi were treated by inversion-table, 13 cases with stone diameter from 4 mm to 20 mm received extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) combined with inversion-table treatment and other 23 cases with stone diameter from 2 mm to 4mm received inversion-table treatment alone.

RESULTSAll of 36 cases underwent inversion-table treatment successfully and no one had cardio-cerebral accident. After following up 3 months, the radiologically documented complete stone clearance rate at 3 months group was 83.3%.

CONCLUSIONInversion-table treatment is a safe and valuable adjunct in assisting passage of lower pole renal stone fragments after mini-invasive treatment of stone and can improve stone-free rate.

Adult ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Kidney Calculi ; therapy ; Lithotripsy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Posture ; Treatment Outcome ; Vibration ; therapeutic use

Mechanical loading is the main "instructive" factor of bone formation. The mechanism becomes the heat point in the field of bone science, biomedicine project and rehabilitation research. Mechanical vibration is one of the mechanic stimulation. Evidences show that vibration has obvious anabolic effect, and will have a broad landscape in the treatment of osteoporosis. But in the present studies, there were incorporated with the vibration frequency, and intensity, in particularly, few reports about the mechanism of vibration to bone. It will provide theoretic foundation for further systematic, sound research and its clinical application.
Animals ; Biomechanical Phenomena ; Bone Diseases ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Bone and Bones ; physiology ; physiopathology ; Humans ; Musculoskeletal Manipulations ; Osteogenesis ; Vibration ; therapeutic use

OBJECTIVES: Stroke patients may have various sensory-motor disorders, such as spasticity, muscle weakness or sensory damage. Spasticity affects 20% to 40% of stroke patients. Patients with spasticity may have problems such as pain, motor function damage, and the decreased range of motion, which leads to decline of activity and quality of daily life. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) is a technique that can improve post-stroke spasticity. Whole body vibration (WBV), as a passive neuromuscular muscle stimulation technique, can improve the posture control, muscle strength, and muscle work of different people. At present, there are still few studies using WBV combined with ESWT for the treatment of hemiplegic patients with stroke. This study aims to explore the effects of WBV combined with ESWT on spasticity of the affected lower limb and gait function in stroke patients. METHODS: From March 2020 to March 2021, 50 hemiplegic patients with stroke were treated in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of the First Hospital of Changsha and they were assigned into a control group and a combined group, 25 cases per group. Both groups carried out conventional treatment, while the control group undertook the ESWT and fake WBV based on conventional treatment, and the combined group undertook ESWT after WBV and conventional treatment. Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS), Lower Extremity portion of the Fugl-Meyer Motor Assessment (FMA-LE), Berg Balance Scale (BBS), and parameters of three-dimensional gait analysis including kinematic parameters (peak value of hip flexion and knee flexion) and spatiotemporal parameters (velocity, cadence and stride length) were assessed before and after 4-week treatment between the 2 groups. RESULTS: After 4 weeks of treatment, MAS scores in 2 groups were lower than before (both P<0.05), and the combined group was lower than the control group (P<0.001); BBS and FMA-LE scores were higher than those before treatment (both P<0.05), and the combined group was higher than the control group (both P<0.001); in the control group, the walking speed, stride frequency, and stride length were higher than those before treatment (all P<0.05), and there was no significant difference between the peak value of flexion hip and peak value of flexion knee (both P<0.05); the peak value of hip flexion, peak value of knee flexion, step speed, step frequency, and stride length in the combined group were higher than those before treatment (all P<0.05), and were higher than those in control group (P<0.05 or P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS WBV combined with ESWT can improve the spasticity and motor function of the affected lower extremity, balance, and gait in hemiplegic patients with stroke.
Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy ; Gait ; Hemiplegia/therapy* ; Humans ; Muscle Spasticity/therapy* ; Stroke/complications* ; Stroke Rehabilitation/methods* ; Treatment Outcome ; Vibration/therapeutic use*

BACKGROUNDJaw osteonecrosis possibly associated with the administration of bisphosphonates is expected to be treated with a non-pharmacologic approach. This study aimed to determine whether noninvasive, mechanically mediated vibration would inhibit the decline in bone mineral density (BMD) that follows menopause, enhance the BMD of the lumbar and femoral neck, and reduce chronic back pain in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

METHODSA total of 116 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis participated in this study, and they were divided into groups A (66 patients) and B (50). Group A received vibration treatment (Subjects vertically stand on the vibration platform, with a vibration frequency of 30 Hz, amplitude of 5 mm; they received the treatment five times per week, ten minutes each time and totally for six months), whereas women of group B served as controls without any treatment. L2 - 4 BMD, bilateral femoral neck BMD, and body mass index (BMI) were recorded before the treatment or at the third and sixth months of the treatment respectively. After the ending of the treatment, the change of BMD in each group was compared and analyzed. Chronic back pain was evaluated by visual analogue scale (VAS) at baseline and the third and sixth months of the treatment.

RESULTSOf the 116 women, 94 including 51 women from group A ((61.23 +/- 8.20) years) and 43 women from group B ((63.73 +/- 5.45) years), completed the study. There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics including age, BMI, menopausal years, lumbar BMD, femoral neck BMD, and VAS between the two groups. The lumbar BMD of the 51 women in group A increased by 1.3% (P = 0.034) after vibration treatment for 3 months and by 4.3% at the sixth month (P = 0.000). The lumbar BMD in group B was decreased at the third month, but there was not statistical significance (P > 0.05). At the sixth month, it was decreased by 1.9% (P < 0.05). The femoral neck BMD of the 51 women in group A was slightly increased after vibration treatment for 3 months, but without statistical significance (P > 0.05). At the sixth month, the BMD was increased by 3.2% (P < 0.05). In group B, the BMD was not decreased significantly (P = 0.185) at the third month, but decreased significantly at the sixth month (1.7%) (P < 0.05) compared with the baseline. Chronic back pain (VAS) reduced more significantly in group A at the third and the sixth months (P < 0.05) after vibration therapy in comparison with the baseline. The BMI was not significantly changed in the two groups during the period of follow-up.

CONCLUSIONSVibration therapy appears to be useful in reducing chronic back pain and increasing the femoral neck and lumbar BMD in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

Aged ; Back Pain ; prevention & control ; Bone Density ; Female ; Femur Neck ; Humans ; Lumbar Vertebrae ; Middle Aged ; Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal ; therapy ; Vibration ; therapeutic use

OBJECTIVE: It has been reported that local vibration therapy can benefit recovery after peripheral nerve injury, but the optimized parameters and effective mechanism were unclear. In the present study, we investigated the effect of local vibration therapy of different amplitudes on the recovery of nerve function in rats with sciatic nerve injury (SNI). METHODS: Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to SNI and then randomly divided into 5 groups: sham group, SNI group, SNI + A-1 mm group, SNI + A-2 mm group, and SNI + A-4 mm group (A refers to the amplitude; n = 10 per group). Starting on the 7th day after model initiation, local vibration therapy was given for 21 consecutive days with a frequency of 10 Hz and an amplitude of 1, 2 or 4 mm for 5 min. The sciatic function index (SFI) was assessed before surgery and on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th days after surgery. Tissues were harvested on the 28th day after surgery for morphological, immunofluorescence and Western blot analysis. RESULTS: Compared with the SNI group, on the 28th day after surgery, the SFIs of the treatment groups were increased; the difference in the SNI + A-2 mm group was the most obvious (95% confidence interval [CI]: [5.86, 27.09], P < 0.001), and the cross-sectional areas of myocytes in all of the treatment groups were improved. The G-ratios in the SNI + A-1 mm group and SNI + A-2 mm group were reduced significantly (95% CI: [-0.12, -0.02], P = 0.007; 95% CI: [-0.15, -0.06], P < 0.001). In addition, the expressions of S100 and nerve growth factor proteins in the treatment groups were increased; the phosphorylation expressions of ERK1/2 protein in the SNI + A-2 mm group and SNI + A-4 mm group were upregulated (95% CI: [0.03, 0.96], P = 0.038; 95% CI: [0.01, 0.94], P = 0.047, respectively), and the phosphorylation expression of Akt in the SNI + A-1 mm group was upregulated (95% CI: [0.11, 2.07], P = 0.031). CONCLUSION Local vibration therapy, especially with medium amplitude, was able to promote the recovery of nerve function in rats with SNI; this result was linked to the proliferation of Schwann cells and the activation of the ERK1/2 and Akt signaling pathways.
Animals ; Male ; Peripheral Nerve Injuries/therapy* ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt/pharmacology* ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sciatic Nerve/metabolism* ; Sciatic Neuropathy/metabolism* ; Vibration/therapeutic use*

SS-cream made with extracts from natural products is a topical agent for treating premature ejaculation (PE). In order to elucidate the penile vibratory threshold changes and clinical effects of various doses of SS-cream, 53 patients with primary PE were investigated in a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled study. The mean age was 37.3 +/- 6.4 years and mean ejaculatory latency was 1.37 +/- 0.52 minutes. Neither the patients nor their sexual partners were satisfied with their sexual lives. Vibratory threshold at the glans penis, penile shaft, scrotum and index finger were measured using a biothesiometer twice during the screening period and three times one hour after the application of respective creams (SS-cream 0.05, 0.10. 0.15, 0.20 gm and placebo 0.10 gm) on the glans penis according to the order of the allocation table in a randomized fashion. The efficacy of SS-cream was defined as when the vibration threshold increased by more than 4 microns compared to the value tested during the screening period. The vibratory thresholds at the glans penis increased significantly in a dose-dependent manner after the application of various doses (0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20 gm) of SS-cream (p < 0.001), and the efficacy of SS-cream on the penile vibration threshold increased according to the increased dosage (penile shaft: 48.4, 51.6, 54.8, 64.5%, glans penis: 58.1, 67.7, 77.4, 83.9%, respectively). With these results, we concluded that SS-cream increased the penile sensory threshold dose dependently, and therefore it is clinically effective for treating the heightened penile sensory response in patients with PE.
Adult ; Double-Blind Method ; Ejaculation/drug effects* ; Human ; Male ; Penis/physiopathology* ; Plant Extracts/therapeutic use* ; Plants, Medicinal* ; Sensory Thresholds ; Sex Disorders/physiopathology* ; Sex Disorders/drug therapy* ; Time Factors ; Vibration*

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of magnitopuncture stimuli for reducing driver mental stress and fatigue using power spectral analysis of the heart rate variability (HRV) and subjective evaluation. The experiments were divided into A-group and B-group. In both groups the subjects performed the simulator for 90 minutes under a vibration conditions with an erect sitting posture in a silent environment, and magnitopuncture was put on the acupoints when performing the task for one hour in A-group. In this study HRV exhibited a significant difference between the two groups after the simulating task (P < 0.05). A conclusion that magnitopuncture stimuli can reduce the driver mental stress and fatigue effectively was drawn.
Acupuncture Points ; Adult ; Automobile Driving ; Autonomic Nervous System ; physiopathology ; Electric Stimulation Therapy ; methods ; Fatigue ; therapy ; Heart Rate ; physiology ; Humans ; Magnetics ; therapeutic use ; Male ; Stress, Physiological ; therapy ; Vibration ; adverse effects