Affiliations: [a]
Department of Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, Medical University of Lodz, Poland
| [b] Cabinet of physiotherapy “MedicalFizjo”, Poland
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Anna Kubsik PhD, Medical University of Lodz, Department of Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, Street – Square of Haller 1, 90-647 Lodz, Poland. Tel.: +48 660 407 211; E-mail: anna.kubsik@wp.pl.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Multiple sclerosis is one of the most common neurological disorders. It is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the CNS, whose etiology is not fully understood. Application of new rehabilitation methods are essential to improve functional status. OBJECTIVE:The material studied consisted of 120 patients of both sexes (82 women and 38 men) aged 21–81 years. The study involved patients with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of laser radiation and other therapies on the functional status of patients with multiple sclerosis. METHODS:Patients were randomly divided into four treatment groups. The evaluation was performed three times – before the start of rehabilitation, immediately after rehabilitation (21 days of treatment) and subsequent control – 30 days after the patients leave the clinic. The following tests were performed for all patients to assess functional status: Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) of Kurtzke and Barthel Index. RESULTS:Results of all testing procedures show that the treatment methods are improving the functional status of patients with multiple sclerosis, with the significant advantage of the synergistic action of laser and magneto stimulation. The combination of laser and magneto stimulation significantly confirmed beneficial effect on quality of life. The results of these studies present new scientific value and are improved compared to program of rehabilitation of patients with multiple sclerosis by laser radiation which was previously used. CONCLUSIONS:This study showed that synergic action of laser radiation and magneto stimulation has a beneficial effect on improving functional status, and thus improves the quality of life of patients with multiple sclerosis. The effects of all methods of rehabilitation are persisted after cessation of treatment applications, with a particular advantage of the synergistic action of laser radiation and magneto stimulation, which indicates the possibility to elicitation in these methods the phenomenon of the biological hysteresis.
