Medical Hydrology and Balneology: Environmental Aspects

State of the art, Health Resort Medicine in
Spain
Corvillo I (1-2) , Cerrada A (2-3) , Aguilera A (1-2) , Martín AI (2-4)
(1) Professional School of Medical Hydrology, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad
Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
(2) Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Medical Hydrology, Faculty
of Medicine, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
(3) Centro de Talasoterapia Elba Estepona, Málaga, Spain
(4) Hydrology. IMSERSO. Madrid. Spain
corvillo@med.ucm.es
Introduction
Changes and developments that have occurred during the last twenty years in the
field of Crenotherapy have led to an increasing social demand for spa treatments
(balneotherapy) leading to an expansion and development of Spanish spas. We
decided to study, first hand, the Sanitary and Socio-Sanitary availability with regards
to the installations, professionals and indications from a Crenotherapy and
Rehabilitation point of view, focusing on disorders of the musculoskeletal system
(MSS), respiratory and ENT (RS-ENT). We also wanted to know the therapeutic
activity and application of functional rehabilitation programs conducted, in order to
know the treatments given as an alternative Sanitary option, less aggressive with the
pathology, mainly in chronic, musculoskeletal , respiratory and ENT.
Objectives
The aim of this study was to determine the materials and professionals available
in Spanish Spas, allowing us to select those which can offer functional rehabilitation
programs with full guarantee.
Materials and Methods
The material used for this paper was a specific questionnaire developed by our
department. To complete the information we consulted the “Vademecum de aguas
mineromedicinales españolas” (Handbook of Spanish mineral medicinal waters)
and the Web page of fifty-four spas.
The method used has been: organization of the information obtained through the
questionnaires answered by personal phone calls to ninety-three Medical Directors,
and the development of a database using Microsoft Access and the creation of
charts and graphs using Microsoft Excel.
Results
The following data were obtained with regards to MSS and RS-ENT in our research:
Balnea
2012, núm. 6, 58-59
58
ISBN: 978-84-669-1887-0
978-84-669-3482-4