Active warming as emergency interventional care for the treatment of pelvic pain

Objective  To assess whether local active warming can lessen acute pelvic pain of gynaecological origin compared with traditional methods in a prehospital setting. Design  Prospective, randomised, single‐blinded study. Setting  Prehospital emergency system. Population  Women calling emergency ambula...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology 2006-09, Vol.113 (9), p.1031-1034
Main Authors: Bertalanffy, P, Kober, A, Andel, H, Hahn, R, Frickey, N, Hoerauf, K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Analgesia
Biological and medical sciences
Blood vessels
Clinical trials
Emergency medical care
emergency medicine
Emergency Treatment - methods
Female
Gynecology
Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics
Humans
Hyperthermia, Induced - methods
Medical sciences
Pain management
Patient Satisfaction
pelvic pain
Pelvic Pain - therapy
Prospective Studies
Single-Blind Method
Treatment Outcome
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Summary:Objective  To assess whether local active warming can lessen acute pelvic pain of gynaecological origin compared with traditional methods in a prehospital setting. Design  Prospective, randomised, single‐blinded study. Setting  Prehospital emergency system. Population  Women calling emergency ambulance for pelvic pain. Methods  Women were randomised in two groups: resistive heating (group 1) or passive warming (group 2), each treatment was initiated at the emergency site. Main outcome measures  Pain on visual analogue scale (VAS), anxiety and nausea, given as mean (SD). Results  Prior to the interventions, all women were vasoconstricted and had comparable pain scores. Then, group 1 showed a significant (P < 0.01) reduction in pain (VAS: 72.2 [10.5] mm to 32.4 [18.0] mm), anxiety (VAS: 59.0 [10.9] mm to 37.5 [24.1] mm), nausea (VAS: 42.7 [6.2] mm to 21.6 [5.0] mm) and heart rate (101 [12] beats per minute [bpm] to 59 [8] bpm), as well as in the number of vasoconstricted women (from 19/19 constricted/dilated to 2/19 constricted/dilated), whereas scores in group 2 remained unchanged. There were no significant changes in blood pressure in either group. Conclusions Local warming is an effective emergency care measure for acute pelvic pain.
ISSN:1470-0328
1471-0528
DOI:10.1111/j.1471-0528.2006.01030.x