Medical Hydrology and Balneology: Environmental Aspects

Effect of pelotherapy on the perception painful
and drug use in patients diagnosed with
knee osteoarthritis
Espejo L (1) , Cardero M (2) , Torres S (1) , Caro B (1) , Ibañez B (3)
(1) Departamento de Terapéutica Médico-Quirúrgica,
Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain
(2) Centro Sociosanitario Puente Real, Badajoz, Spain
(3) El Raposo Spa, Badajoz, Spain
storres@unex.es
Introduction and Objectives
Given the active aging population and the current high level of interest in investigating
what / physical agents is frequently used in the bathing establishments are
most suitable in the treatment of osteoarthritis, the objectives of this paper are based
to know the effects that the application of natural peloid on perceived pain and
consumption of drugs in patients diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis
Materials and Methods
Experimental, prospective, controlled, single blind. The experimental group
(EG) consisted of 61 subjects who come to the Spa the Raposo (Badajoz) for treatment,
whose average age was (69.13 ± 5.60 years) while the control group (CG)
consisted of 60 subjects mean age 73.08 is ± 8.90 years.
Inclusion criteria were a diagnosis of osteoarthritis according to the criteria of
the American College of Rheumatology (Altman, 1986) and that were in the age
range between 65 and 80. Exclusion criteria were to present partial denture or total
knee and having done some physical therapy in the past two weeks. EG was applied
to a total of 11 daily sessions of pelotherapy, with the duration of 60-72 minutes
each. The CG did not receive any intervention continuing his routine. The sample
was assessed before and after the intervention with respect to the perception of pain
by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the record of the evolution in the use of
specific drugs for arthritic symptoms, setting the significance level to rule out the
null hypothesis if p < 0.05. Data were analyzed using SPSS 19.0 statistical software
Results
Are obtained statistically significant changes (p ≤ 0.05) between pre-and posttest
on pain perception in the EG (p ≤ 0.0001), from 4.53 to 2.55 points on the VAS
scale, while the CG not get significant changes (p = 0.287), significant differences
between groups (p ≤ 0.0001). In the EG significantly reduces the consumption of
specific drugs (p = 0.021) in 48.1%, while 22.2% stop taking drugs. Both the GE
Balnea 391
ISBN: 978-84-669-1887-0
978-84-669-3482-4
2012, núm. 6, 391-392