What is interferential current used for?
Interferential current therapy (ICT, or sometimes IFC) is the most common type of electrical muscle stimulation used to treat chronic pain resulting from surgery, injury or trauma. The end goal for using ICT as part of a physical therapy or rehab program is to relieve pain and help patients heal faster.
What is the contraindication of IFT?
The exclusion criteria were as follows: Any contraindication to the use of IFT (Table 1) [38,39]; previous cervical spine or shoulder surgery; a history of neurological or mental illnesses; diagnosed central or peripheral nervous system diseases [23]; concomitant fracture in the neck/shoulder; altered sensitivity to …
What is the principle of IFT?
The basic principle of Interferential Therapy (IFT) is to utilise the significant physiological effects of low frequency (≅<250pps) electrical stimulation of nerves without the associated painful and somewhat unpleasant side effects sometimes associated with low frequency stimulation.
How does IFC reduce pain?
Interferential current (IFC) is a medium frequency electrical stimulation used for pain relief when targeting deep tissue. Two sinusoidal waves are crossed and interfere with each other, creating a third vector to stimulate a larger area.
What is interferential therapy?
Interferential current therapy works by sending small amounts of electrical stimulation to damaged tissues in the body. The therapy is meant to boost the body’s natural process of responding to pain, by increasing circulation thus produces hormones that promote healing.
Is interferential therapy effective?
Interferential current therapy is an effective therapy option used by many physiotherapy clinics to relieve pain and accelerate the self-healing process, getting your body back to a healthy, pain free state. The high frequency signals of an IFC penetrate through the skin into deeper lying muscle tissues.
What is sweep in interferential therapy?
The sweep frequency range of IFC therapy used in this study allows modulation of pain by activation of different nerve fibres. It was used at sensory level that allow relaxation of the muscle with frequency range improve peripheral blood flow.
Is there evidence for the use of interferential therapy?
Interferential Therapy (IFT / IFC) has been widely used in therapy for many years (usage reviewed in Pope et al, 1995 and more recently Shah and Farrow, 2012), Its use is probably disproportionate to both the volume and the quality of the published evidence, though it is strongly supported on an anecdotal evidence level,…
How are medium frequency currents used in interferential therapy?
Interferential therapy utilises two of these medium frequency currents, passed through the tissues simultaneously, where they are set up so that their paths cross & they literally interfere with each other – hence another term that has been used in the past but appears to be out of favour at the moment – Interference Current Therapy.
What are the basic rules of IFT therapy?
The basic rule of Interferential Therapy (IFT) is to employ the significant physiological effects of low frequency (<250pps) electrical stimulation of nerves without unpleasant side effects. Recently, many ‘portable’ interferential units have become easily available.
How does interferential therapy help with muscle pain?
Interferential therapy helps improving blood flow by stimulating the pumping action of the muscle. Improved blood circulation helps to heal the swelling and inflammation and thereby reducing the pain. Pain also reduces after application of IFT machine by a mechanism called as pain gait theory.