COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MENS AND TENS FOR PAIN RELIEF IN PATIENTS WITH PARTIAL ROTATOR CUFF TEAR (A ONE-YEAR FOLLOW-UP)

S. Vrouva¹, V. Sopidou², K. Chanopoulos³, G. Koumantakis⁴ | ¹Department of Physiotherapy, 401 Athens Military Hospital/Department of Physiotherapy, University of Western Attica, Athens; ²Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Attica, Athens; ³Department of Application Development, Army Geographic Service (AGS), Athens ; ⁴Department of Physiotherapy, University of Western Attica, Athens

INTRODUCTION
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a combined physiotherapy intervention (electrotherapy TENS or MENS - and kinesiotherapy) used to provide relief to patients suffering from partial thickness rotator cuff tears, and the comparison between the two alternative methods.
METHODS
Confirmation of partial thickness rotator cuff tears was made by ultrasound as to the category that caused the pain in patients participated in the study. A total of 42 patients were screened to ensure that they had not received recent medication that included non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and were randomly assigned in two groups. First group receive TENS and kinesiotherapy, while the second received MENS and kinesiotherapy. Τhe tools used to assess pain intensity, disability and quality of life were the Shoulder Pain And Disability Index (SPADI), the numerical rating scale (NRS) and the Euro QoL questionnaire (EQ-5D: health today), respectively. The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated with Anova repeated measurements analysis, within five time points (baseline, 1, 3, 6 and 12-months after the treatment) and between the two different groups of patients (TENS or MENS). In addition, we performed independent student's t and Mann Whitney-U tests to determine the existence of any statistically significant difference between the two methods used at each time point. Data are presented as means and standard deviation (SD). A P value <0.05 was defined as statistical significance. Statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS Statistics V.26 for Windows.
RESULTS
The results of the repeated measures analysis of variance showed significant improvement in the patients' pain scores, functionality and quality of life for both groups (p-values<0.001), right after the intervention. Although the MENS group had a higher improvement in pain level while the TENS group in disability and quality of life, differences between groups found no significant (p-values > 0.05) at baseline, 1 and 3 months after the intervention. In contrast to the quarterly measurements, independent t and Mann-Whitney tests, report statistically significant differences between groups 6 and 12 months after the treatment for: SPADI total (p=0.006 and p<0.001, respectively), SPADI pain (p=0.036 and p=0.001), SPADI disability (p=0.005 and p<0.001), EQ-5D: health today, NRS Now and NRS last week with p values < 0.001 for these time measurements. The MENS group results in higher improvement for all the examined variables.
CONCLUSIONS
The above study suggests that interventions that include a combination of MENS and kinesiotherapy, which are applied to rotator cuff tear suffers, show significant results in terms of pain relief, improved functionality and quality of life that can last up to one year after treatment.