Discussion
rheumatoid arthritis, postoperative pain, hernia, shoulder pain, pain, PLSP
RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
The present study evaluated the effectiveness of classical hand massage in reducing PLSP compared to TENS. To our knowledge, no previous research compared these two interventions to relieve PLSP. Therefore, the current randomized trial was the first study following laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Based on our findings, TENS significantly reduced PLSP when added to multimodal treatment methods. In other studies on different types of surgery, the effect of active TENS has been compared to placebo [In a previous study, Asgari et al. [In line with our study, Borges et al. [Also, Platon et al. [In another study, 52 patients undergoing inguinal hernia surgery were divided into two active TENS and control groups (26 people in each group) to investigate the effects of TENS on postoperative pain. The duration of the intervention was 24 h and applied five times after the operation for 30 min. In the experimental group, TENS was used with a frequency of 100 Hz and a pulse width of 100 microseconds. In the other group, TENS was applied without electrical stimulation. Similarly, the results indicated a significant reduction in pain in the Active TENS group [However, in some studies, no evidence confirmed the effect of TENS on pain. In this regard, Kurata et al. [Also, in these three studies, no effect of TENS on pain at rest (static pain) after abdominal surgery [We also found that classic hand massage significantly reduced PLSP. The present finding can improve our understanding of the value of massage therapy techniques on pain.In a systematic review and meta-analysis, an evidence was presented that short-term or long-term massage is an effective method for reducing shoulder pain [In another study, 105 patients with rheumatoid arthritis were divided into three massage, reiki, and control groups to investigate the effects of hand massage and reiki on pain. The interventions were repeated six times and each time for 30 min. Similar to the current study, the results indicated a significant reduction in pain in both groups [Rasooli et al. [In two clinical trials on patients undergoing heart surgery, the effect of hand massage on postoperative pain showed that in both studies, massage significantly reduced patients’ pain compared to those who received only routine care [In the present study, there was no significant difference in the dose of pethidine used between the three groups. Contrary to the current findings, some studies reported that massage and TENS reduced analgesic use compared to control or placebo groups [Several mechanisms have been proposed for massage therapy and TENS to relieve pain [