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eCAM Advance Access originally published online on April 24, 2006
eCAM 2006 3(2):201-207; doi:10.1093/ecam/nel012
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© The Author (2006). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved
The online version of this article has been published under an open access model. Users are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access version of this article for non-commercial purposes provided that: the original authorship is properly and fully attributed; the Journal and Oxford University Press are attributed as the original place of publication with the correct citation details given; if an article is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative work this must be clearly indicated. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Review

Low-Intensity Electromagnetic Millimeter Waves for Pain Therapy

Taras I. Usichenko, Hardy Edinger, Vasyl V. Gizhko, Christian Lehmann, Michael Wendt and Frank Feyerherd

Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Germany

Millimeter wave therapy (MWT), a non-invasive complementary therapeutic technique is claimed to possess analgesic properties. We reviewed the clinical studies describing the pain-relief effect of MWT. Medline-based search according to review criteria and evaluation of methodological quality of the retrieved studies was performed. Of 13 studies, 9 of them were randomized controlled trials (RCTs), only three studies yielded more than 3 points on the Oxford scale of methodological quality of RCTs. MWT was reported to be effective in the treatment of headache, arthritic, neuropathic and acute postoperative pain. The rapid onset of pain relief during MWT lasting hours to days after, remote to the site of exposure (acupuncture points), was the most characteristic feature in MWT application for pain relief. The most commonly used parameters of MWT were the MW frequencies between 30 and 70 GHz and power density up to 10 mW cm–2. The promising results from pilot case series studies and small-size RCTs for analgesic/hypoalgesic effects of MWT should be verified in large-scale RCTs on the effectiveness of this treatment method.

Keywords: analgesia – millimeter waves – pain therapy – review

For reprints and all correspondence: Taras I. Usichenko, Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine Department, Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald, Friedrich Loeffler Strasse 23b, 17487 Greifswald, Germany. Tel.: +49-3834865803; E-mail: taras{at}uni-greifswald.de


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