Design and development of a smart knee pain relief pad based on vibration and alternate heating and cooling treatments

Abstract

Knee pain is one of the main health issues faced by different people in different parts of the world. Over one fourth of the people above the age of fifty suffer from knee pain. Though there are several physiotherapy treatments for treating knee pain they are not self-applicable and those which are self-applicable by the patient are not highly efficient. This paper deals with an approach towards the use of combining two effective physiotherapy treatments which include vibrations at acupressure points on knee and alternate heating and cooling treatments. These treatments are controlled by a smart phone in which the user can choose their setting depending on intensity and places of pain. The knee pad controlled using the smart phone serves as a self-applicable and effective knee pain treatment especially for the elderly. Heating and cooling combination therapy will be a suitable alternative for treatment of musculoskeletal diseases, decreases muscle spasms, muscular pain/tension and also increases the speed of nerve conduction, thus improving range of motion. This methodology also helps to relieve the sinusitis pain, chronic low back pain and muscular sprain in athletes.

A Review on Osteoarthritis Knee Management via Contrast Bath Therapy and Physical Therapy

“…It will reduce muscle spasms and muscular pain/tension, and increase nerve transmission speed, hence improving range of motion. This technique can also aid athletes with sinusitis, persistent low back discomfort, and muscular sprains [ 27 ].…”

Use of Information and Communication Technologies to Enhance Self-Acupressure: a Literature Review

“…Among them, one study that was not a clinical study, five studies that did not use self-acupressure, seven studies that did not combine ICTs with self-acupressure, and two studies that used the same data as published journal articles (conference abstracts) were excluded. Finally, 12 studies [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] were included in this review (Fig. 1).…”

“…The 12 included studies were published between 2018 and 2021. In terms of study design, five RCTs [20,[23][24][25]28], three pilot studies with one group [22,27,30], two RCT protocols [26,31], one focus group and online survey [21], and one qualitative study [29] were included. Among the included studies, the rationale for four studies [25,[28][29][30] was the COVID-19 era (4/12, 33.33%).…”

“…Using this feedback, the researchers produced a final version of the video and posted it on YouTube (https:// youtu.be/f6-9yYWSCWY). Priya et al [22] developed a homebased self-applicable smartphone-controlled kneepad, which combined vibrations with heating and cooling treatments on acupressure points (six points on the front and back of the knee) for knee pain. Thirty participants with moderate knee pain (NRS score of 4-8) participated in the study.…”

“…Among the 12 studies [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31], seven studies (7/12, 58.33%) [20,21,23,25,26,29,31], four studies (4/12, 33.33%) [24,27,28,30], and one study (1/12, 8.33%) [22] described the self-acupressure type as manual stimulation on body acupoints, AA, and self-applicable smartphone-controlled kneepad, respectively. Only three studies [20,21,26] reported the stimulation time per acupoint, ranging from 1 to 3 minutes, with an average of 1.67.…”