Effects of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation in Post-operative Lung Cancer

Effects of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation in the Conventional Mode in Post-operative Lung Cancer Patients in a Reference Hospital in the Amazon Region

Among all cancers, lung cancer is the most common disease on the planet, accounting for 13% of the cases, and leading the number of deaths from malignant diseases. In Brazil, it is estimated that its incidence between 2018 and 2019 could be 18,704 new cases in men and 12,503,000 new cases in women. These data take into account an estimated risk of 18.16 new cases for 100,000 men and 11.81 for 100,000 women, respectively occupying the second and fourth most frequent cases of the disease according to gender . Surgeries, however aggressive they may be, are one of the most viable alternatives for patients with PC, provided it is performed in the milder or early phase of the disease, since after such period this procedure may have a period degree greater than the other forms of treatment. As a consequence, the injuries that the surgical procedure can cause to patients, pain is one of the most influential in the patient's quality of life. It can lead the individual to a marked state of disability both functional and psychological, thus being determinant for the suffering related to the disease, thus comprising its multifactorial character, involving physical, emotional, socio-cultural and environmental aspects . For the control of pain, physiotherapy appears with features such as transcutaneous nerve electrostimulation, where its use for the suppression of pain has become quite feasible due mainly to the ease of its handling, to be noninvasive and to serve to reduce acute pain and chronic. The use of conventional transcutaneous nerve electrostimulation to support the use of analgesics reduced the intensity of pain in patients of the second day of thoracotomy, but for a longer extension of their effects, it would take a longer time to apply the resource, something around 24 -48 hours.

Visual analogue scale - EVA: consists of checking the intensity of pain in patients at the moment it is being evaluated. Such a tool consists of a line with the ends numbered from 0 to 10, and from 0 to 2 it is considered light pain; 3 to 7 moderate pain; and 8 to 10 severe pain

Functional capacity scale Performance Status- PS: aims to monitor the clinical evolution of a disease by joining the Karnofsky scale and the Zubrod or ECOG scale. Karnofsky's scale or index describes increasing levels of activities and independence of the individual stipulated values between 0 and 100, zero meaning no functionality or death and 100 representing the maximum degree of physical ability to perform activities. The Zubrod or ECOG scale quantified between 0 and 4, where 0 means 0 indicates that the individual is fully active for the performance of his activities and 4 assigning to the dead patient. Such scales are widely used for the evaluation of oncological patients, being somewhat complementary, therefore used together

Inclusion Criteria: Patients diagnosed with Primary Lung Cancer; male over 18 years and less than 59 years old, in an immediate postoperative period in the ward of the Hospital thoracic clinic. Evaluation of pain through the visual analogue scale equal to or greater than moderate or intense. Percentage equal to or greater than 70% in all the items assessed by the Performance Status functional capacity scale. Exclusion Criteria: Patients with immediate postoperative complications Unconscious or sedation patients Patients with invasive mechanical ventilation Patients who present lesions that make it difficult to handle and place electrodes. Patients who use pacemakers and metal plates.

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