Short wave diathermy in the symptomatic management of chronic pelvic inflammatory disease pain: A randomized controlled trial

Background and Purpose.Chronic pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) refers to both residue of acute and sub-acute recurrence of a previous infection or/and as a result of late detection of and intervention for upper tract pelvic infection. Owing to the chronic nature of the disease, which may require large doses of analgesics and/or antibiotics both of which may have side effects on the body, there is a need for a non-invasive therapeutic and symptomatic chronic pain management. The main purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of short wave diathermy (SWD) in the symptomatic management of chronic PID pain. Method. An independent group; double blind random assignment design was used in data collection. A total of 32 subjects diagnosed as chronic PID patients referred for physiotherapy were randomly assigned to three (SWD, control and analgesic) groups. The SWD group received antibiotics, placebo (sham analgesic) tablets and SWD using the crossfire technique for an average of 15 exposures lasting for 20 minutes on alternate days of the week. Other groups; Analgesic group received antibiotics, Analgesics and sham SWD; while the control group received antibiotics, sham SWD and placebo tablets. The study lasted for a period of 30 days. Result. Findings of the study revealed significant effect of SWD over analgesic and control in pain responses and resolution of inflammation at p < 0.05. Conclusion. It was concluded that SWD may be an effective and non invasive therapy in the management of chronic PID pain. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.