NeuroTrac™ Labour TENS Operation Manual
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When we feel pain it is the body’s process of informing us that something is
wrong. To feel pain is important, without this feeling abnormal conditions may
go undetected, creating damage or injury to critical parts of the body.
Although pain is essential in warning our body of trauma or malfunction,
nature may have gone too far in its design. Continued long-term chronic pain
has no useful value apart from its importance in diagnosis. Pain begins when a
coded signal travels to the brain where it is decoded, and analysed. The pain
message travels from the injured area of the body along small
diameter nerves leading to the spinal cord. At this point the message is
switched to a different kind of nerve that travels up the spinal cord to the brain
area. The brain then analyses the pain message, refers it back and the pain is
felt.
What is TENS?
Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) uses a small battery
operated unit to provide a non-invasive, drug free method of controlling acute
and principally long term intractable pain. It can also be used as an
adjunctive treatment in the management of post surgical traumatic pain
problems. In TENS mild electrical impulses are transmuted through the skin
via surface electrodes to modify the body’s pain perception. TENS does not
cure problematic physiological conditions; it only helps to control the pain
perception. TENS will not work for every user. However Physiotherapists and
Doctors throughout the world prescribe TENS extensively and it is
generally seen to work for the majority of users. There are millions of small
nerve fibres throughout the body and it only requires a few impulses to
produce chronic pain. In addition to small fibres, which allow the sensation of
pain to be felt, the body is also made up of larger diameter nerve fibres. These
larger nerve fibres transmit less unpleasant sensations such as touch or warmth,
assisting us to form an impression of our environment. Stimulating the larger
nerve fibres using TENS may have the effect of inhibiting the transmission of
pain along the smaller nerve fibres to the spinal cord [known as the ‘Pain Gate
Theory’].
What is Pain?
