Department of Clinical Oncology, Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Krakow Branch, 00-001 Krakow, Poland.
Labcorp (Polska) Sp. z o.o., 05-825 Warsaw, Poland.
Medicina (Kaunas). 2022 Feb 14;58(2):284. doi: 10.3390/medicina58020284.
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is the usage of a mild electrical current through electrodes that stimulate nerves. Patients with malignancies experience pain and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. A systematic review was performed to find research evaluating the effect of TENS on these two common symptoms decreasing the quality of life in cancer patients. PubMed, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and EMBASE were searched. Original studies, namely randomized controlled trials, quasi-randomized controlled trials and controlled clinical trials, published between April 2007 and May 2020, were considered. The quality of the selected studies was assessed. Seven papers were incorporated in a qualitative synthesis, with 260 patients in total. The studies varied in terms of design, populations, endpoints, quality, treatment duration, procedures and follow-up period. Based on the results, no strict recommendations concerning TENS usage in the cancer patient population could be issued. However, the existing evidence allows us to state that TENS is a safe procedure that may be self-administered by the patients with malignancy in an attempt to relieve different types of pain. There is a need for multi-center, randomized clinical trials with a good methodological design and adequate sample size.
经皮神经电刺激（TENS）是通过电极刺激神经来使用微弱电流的方法。患有恶性肿瘤的患者会经历疼痛和化疗引起的周围神经病变。进行了系统评价，以寻找评估 TENS 对这两种常见症状的影响的研究，这些症状降低了癌症患者的生活质量。检索了 PubMed、Cochrane 中央对照试验注册库和 EMBASE。考虑了 2007 年 4 月至 2020 年 5 月期间发表的原始研究，即随机对照试验、半随机对照试验和对照临床试验。评估了所选研究的质量。共有 7 篇论文纳入定性综合分析，共有 260 名患者。研究在设计、人群、终点、质量、治疗持续时间、程序和随访期方面存在差异。基于结果，不能针对癌症患者人群中的 TENS 使用提出严格建议。然而，现有证据使我们能够指出，TENS 是一种安全的程序，患有恶性肿瘤的患者可以自行进行，以缓解不同类型的疼痛。需要进行具有良好方法学设计和足够样本量的多中心随机临床试验。
