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This study aimed to identify the analgesic efficacy and safety of transcutaneous electronic nerve stimulation (TENS) in postoperative pain after pulmonary surgery.
Electronic databases (PubMed, EmBase, Web of Science and CENTRAL) were systematically searched from their inception to June 2019. The continuous variables were pooled as the weighted mean difference (WMD) with correlated 95% confidence interval (CI). Results were recognized as significant when p< 0.05. Subgroup analyses, sensitivity analyses and quality assessment were performed.
Altogether 10 studies were included. The pooled results indicated that TENS group conferred lower pain intensity score on the first postoperative day (POD) (WMD: -0.93, 95% CI: -1.56 to -0.30, p=0.004), POD 2 (WMD: -1.00, 95% CI: -1.64 to -0.35, p=0.002), POD 3 (WMD: -0.92, 95% CI: -1.76 to -0.09, p=0.03), POD 4 (WMD: -0.90, 95% CI: -1.24 to -0.56, p< 0.001), and POD 5 (WMD: -1.39, 95% CI: -2.20 to -0.57, p< 0.001) compared with the placebo TENS group. No publication bias was found. No significant discovery was obtained in sensitivity analyses.
TENS might be an effective supplementary analgesic regimen in multimodal analgesia to decrease pain intensity after pulmonary surgery.