Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation Post-thoracic Surgery in a Intensive Care Unit

Introduction: Pain is an important factor of increase of morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing surgical procedures include thoracotomy. There are different methods of analgesia in postoperative thoracic surgery, ranging from systemic analgesia with opioids, as well as local anesthetics block (intrapleural, extrapleural, intercostal cryoanalgesia, etc.) in addition to spinal blocks and Epidural blocks. In the pharmacological analgesia, electroanalgesia has been proposed as an adjunctive treatment for the relief of postoperative pain. Rationale: noting the lack of data in the literature regarding the use of this physical therapy technique in order to reduce the pain in the postoperative period of thoracic surgery and its consequences, it is relevant to the realization of a new randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effects of transcutaneous electrical nerve (TENS) in the post - thoracic surgery on pain, pulmonary function and strength respiratory muscle. Objective: To evaluate the effects of TENS on pain, respiratory muscle strength and lung function in postoperative thoracic surgery in a Intensive Care Unit. Method: The subjects included will be randomized into three groups randomly: control group (CG) that will hold only conventional physical therapy, TENS group (EG) that will hold the application of TENS associated with conventional physical therapy, TENS placebo group (GP) who will perform the application of TENS placebo to conventional therapy. All groups carry out the assessments (digital manometer, spirometry, visual analog pain scale) in the preoperative period, postoperative Immediate / pre-intervention and at the end of treatment (discharge from the intensive care unit), except for the pain that will be evaluated before and after each intervention session. All patients receive physical therapy three times a day (morning, afternoon and evening) during hospitalization in the intensive care unit. Intervention: The conventional group will rec