287 Role and Efficacy of "Frequency-Modulated Electromagnetic Neural Stimulation" in Treatment for Painful Peripheral Neuropathy in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Aim

Evaluate the efficacy of frequency rhythmic electrical modulation system "FREMS" as a symptomatic treatment for painful peripheral neuropathy(PN) in patients with diabetes mellitus

Method

Retrospective cohort study on 75 patients with Painful PN , who had 10 FREMS sessions using APTIVA device (Lorenz Biotech, Italy), from January 2019 - February 2020.

Patients’ data were collected through the Diabetic Foot Center digital database.

Results

75 patients had APTIVA sessions; Pain assessment was done using Visual analog pain score 0 to 5: 0 = no pain / 5 = severe pain.

16 patients were excluded as they did not complete the 10 sessions and 59 patients were reviewed.

No treatment-related adverse events were recorded during the study rather than very slight burning sensation at the site of electrode placement.

Pain at the beginning

46/59(77.9%) of patients suffered from severe pain (grades 4 & 5), 10/59(16.9%) of patients suffered from moderate pain (grade 3,2) and 2/59 (5%) of patients suffered from mild pain (grades 1 &0).

Pain at the last session : The percentage of patients that suffered from severe pain dropped from 77 % before treatment to 11% after treatment.

From the 46 patients that suffered from severe pain, 12/46 patients (25%) of them improved to mild pain and 27/46 patients (58%) improved to moderate pain.

By comparing the pain score in patients before and after APTIVA, there was a significant statistical difference between the 2 groups using “Paired t-test” with P<0.0001.

Conclusions

APTIVA proved to be a safe & effective treatment in reduction of Pain for painful PN.