Dirençli Diyabetik Nöropatik Ağrıda Puls Elektromanyetik Alan Tedavisinin Etkinliği

Objectives: Diabetic polyneuropathy is the most com-mon and disabled complication of diabetes mellitus. Pharmacological treatment of diabetic neuropathy is lim-ited because of the side efects of the drugs, used in thetreatment of diabetic neuropthy. Alternative treatments arealso used in diabetic neuropathy. Systemic side effects ofnon-pharmacological treatment modalities are rare. Weevaluated the value of pulsed electromagnetic field treat-ment in patients with pain due to diabetic polyneuropathy. Patients and Methods: Symptomatic 95 patients were included in the study, and from these patients, 25 patients were randomized in pulsed electromagnetic field treat-ment group and 25 patients were randomized in placebo group. Pulsed electromagnetic field device was applied over both feet of the patients for one hour a day (dur-ing 10 days). Visual analog scale and neuropathic pain scale of all patients were performed before and aftertreatment and 6th week. Electroneuromyography was also performed before treatment and 6th week. Results: Improvement of pain determined by visual ana-log scale was 53% after treatment and 67% six weeks later. The improvement of visual analog scale scores were statistically significant in study group when com-pared with control subjects. Conclusion: The pulsed electromagnetic field may be an alternative treatment modality in diabetic patients with neuropathic pain.