Department of Obstetrics, Qingdao Jiaozhou Central Hospital, Jiaozhou City, Qingdao 266300, China.
Aspiration medicine, The Eighth People's Hospital of Qingdao, Qingdao 266300, China.
Cell Mol Biol (Noisy-le-grand). 2021 Nov 25;67(3):153-157. doi: 10.14715/cmb/2021.67.3.23.
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is one of the non-pharmacological methods of pain relief that has been able to reduce pain by 70 to 90% in postoperative pain control. This study aimed to determine the effect of TENS on pain control after cesarean section and its effect on PNMT gene expression. For this purpose, a double-blind randomized clinical trial was performed on 70 Chinese patients with elective cesarean section. Patients were divided into case and control groups. In the case group, TENS and analgesic drugs were used to relieve pain, and in the control group, the only analgesic drug was used. Then the severity of pain, recurrence of pain attacks, the number of analgesic drugs used and the amount of analgesic drug used in the first 24 hours after surgery were evaluated and compared. Blood samples were also taken from patients to evaluate PNMT gene expression. The semi-quantitative RT-PCR was used to study changes in gene expression. The results showed that the group treated with TENS had less pain intensity and less recurrence of pain attacks than the group that received only analgesic medication. Also, the frequency of analgesic drug use and its dose in the TENS group were significantly lower than in the control group. TENS, on the other hand, has been able to greatly reduce the expression of the PNMT gene, which is produced during times of stress. Therefore, it is recommended that TENS be used as a non-invasive and non-pharmacological adjuvant effective in reducing pain after cesarean section.
经皮神经电刺激（TENS）是一种非药物止痛方法，它能够在术后疼痛控制中使疼痛减轻 70%到 90%。本研究旨在确定 TENS 对剖宫产术后疼痛控制的影响及其对 PNMT 基因表达的影响。为此，对 70 名中国择期剖宫产患者进行了一项双盲随机临床试验。患者被分为病例组和对照组。在病例组中，TENS 和镇痛药用于缓解疼痛，而在对照组中，仅使用镇痛药。然后评估和比较两组患者术后 24 小时内疼痛的严重程度、疼痛发作的复发率、使用的镇痛药的次数和剂量。还从患者中采集血液样本以评估 PNMT 基因表达。采用半定量 RT-PCR 研究基因表达的变化。结果表明，与仅接受镇痛药物治疗的组相比，接受 TENS 治疗的组疼痛强度较低，疼痛发作的复发率较低。此外，TENS 组使用镇痛药的频率及其剂量明显低于对照组。TENS 还能够极大地降低 PNMT 基因的表达，该基因在应激时产生。因此，建议将 TENS 作为一种非侵入性和非药物性的辅助手段，有效减轻剖宫产术后的疼痛。
