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Interferential Therapy - Coggle Diagram
Interferential Therapy
What is IF?
- Used since 1950s
- Deep form of electrical stimulation
- More comfortable than TENS as skin less impendance
- Can use either 2 or 4 poles
- 2 pole= interference in machine
- 4 poles= interference in the tissues
- evidence- no difference in treatment effects
Treatment effects IF
Primary
- Pain relief similar to TENS
- Muscle stimulation- can be used for muscle weakness+exercise
Secondary
:arrow_down: evidence
- Increased blood flow
- Reduced odema
How do you do IF?
- 4 Pads cross the affected area
- Current passes from one pad to the other
- Electrical currents cross and interfere with each other, hence interferential
- Patient will feel tingling in the area
- May increase to a weak muscle contraction
Sweep
- Nerves will accommodate to a constant signal , and a sweep is used to overcome this
- Limited evidence to justify one form of sweep over another
- Triangular sweep pattern
- Rectangular sweep pattern
- Trapezoidal sweep pattern
IF Basics
- Skin usually washed to remove excess oils and to moisten it
- Pads should be thoroughly wet for even transmission
- If just using 2 electrodes, use the yellow circut
- Electrodes attached by bandages/straps
- When turned on patient should experience tingling sensation on and around the site
- Give the patient a warning notice that they will have a tingling sensation that should not feel like a burn
- Increase intensity- may need to slightly adjust due to accommodation
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Pain gate
- Melzack and wall (1965)
- non-painful input closes the nerve gate to painful input and prevents pain sensation from reaching the CNS.
- This is done by the stimulation of large, myelinated fibres such as a-alpha and a-beta.
- Due to the myelin they are faster than a-delta and c nerve nociceptors that cause pain.
- The impulses reach the dorsal horn before the noxious (painful) stimuli the inhibitory neurone is stimulated and acts as a gate and blocks the pain signal from the projector neurone from reaching the brain
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