Annotated Bibliography
“What is the evidence of positive benefits with using T.E.N.S. (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) unit for pain management?”

Bi, X., Effects of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on pain in patients with spinal cord injury: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Physical Therapy Science 27:
23-25 (2014).

Xia Bi, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Shanghai Gongli Hospital, China, focused his research on investigating the effectiveness with using transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on patients in pain due to a spinal cord injury. Bi states that there have been many clinical papers that have reported positive effects of TENS in pain management but controversy exists over which conditions can be treated using this method. He states that if TENS were shown to be effective method of alleviating pain in Spinal Cord Injury (SPI) patients, it would decrease medical costs and improve quality of life. Bi discusses how their results are consistent with those of previous studies (Celik EC, The effect of low frequency TENS in the treatment of neuropathic pain in patients with spinal cord injury) which reported the effectiveness of TENS in the pain relief of SCI patients. The study had several limitation which were mention in the paper stating that the sample size of subjects was insufficient for generalization of the results, a follow up was not performed, and lastly they did not compare the efficacy of low frequency TENS with high frequency TENS because of the limited number of subjects. The study was fairly easy to read regarding vocabulary as well as length, the average patient would be able to understand what thte authors were speaking of but might be confused with the results since of the limitations they revealed and results they reported. At the end of this study the authors suggested that 12 weeks of TENS