Vibrotherapy reduces the pain associated with plastic surgery procedures

Plastic surgery procedures are often accompanied by severe pain and pharmacological methods of reducing pain are often ineffective. However, there are reports that therapeutic vibration can be a safe and easy-to-use method of reducing pain. Therefore, scientists from the Michigan State University (USA) investigated the effectiveness of vibration in reducing pain in clinical plastic surgery.

• A significant reduction of pain after vibration was observed in 86% of patients.
• The mean pain score was 3.46 without vibration and 1.93 with vibration (the lower the score, the less pain).
• The vibrations were most effective during injection.

Prepared on the basis of:

Vibration for Pain Reduction in a Plastic Surgery Clinic. Eichhorn MG, Karadsheh MJ, Krebiehl JR, Ford DM, Ford RD. Plast Surg Nurs. 2016 Apr-Jun;36(2):63-8.

Study population

We analyzed the 28 cases of patients requiring at least 2 consecutive treatments considered painful.

Test procedure

Painful procedures on which the analgesic properties of the vibrations were tested included injection, staple, and suture removal. For control purposes – the same patient experienced the same number of both vibration and vibration-free treatments. After the procedures, the patients assessed the pain accompanying the procedures on an 11-point Numeric Rating Scale (NRS).

Use of vibration in the study

Vibration was provided by DentalVibe (Boca Raton), a cordless handheld instrument already used clinically to reduce pain associated with dental injections. Here, its analgesic properties during the removal of staple and suture was further investigated. The vibrations were delivered to the skin in the immediate vicinity of the suture, staple, or injection site.

Results

After the application of vibration, patients reported a significant reduction in pain compared to the control group (p <0.001). Significant pain reduction was observed in as many as 86% of patients. The mean pain score was 3.46 without vibration and 1.93 (NRS) with vibration. The vibration was the most effective with injection.

Comment

This study supports reports that vibration relieves pain immediately and in a targeted manner. In addition, vibrations are safe and cheap, so they can be an extremely useful tool in a plastic surgery clinic.

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