New aspects of microcurrent electrical neuromuscular stimulation in sports medicine

Abstract

Sports-associated injuries often involve trauma to soft tissues such as ligaments, tendons, skeletal muscle, and skin. A shortened recovery process for injured tissues is of great interest to athletes, as injury-associated inactivity depresses both sports performance and physical fitness. Recently proposed treatments to accelerate tissue repair include microcurrent electrical neuromuscular stimulation (MENS), low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS), hyperbaric oxygen (HBO), and autologous platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Among these treatments, MENS has been applied to alleviate pain and reduce swelling following sports-associated injuries of tendons and ligaments. MENS is reported to stimulate the regeneration of skeletal muscles, a part of the body commonly injured in sports. MENS is expected to soon become a standard therapy for accelerating the repair of injured skeletal muscles and other soft tissues. In this review, we provide an overview of MENS and briefly describe several other proposed treatments for sports-associated injuries.

Biomechanical Energy Metabolism Model of Sports Medicine

“…Parameters The relationship between length of femur, length of tibia, gravity of upper limb, gravity of thigh and height and weight is L1=0.32h, L2=0.247h, W1=0.8168w, W2=0.1406w distance from the patellar ligament to the center of the knee fulcrum was measured several times, and the results were as follows: r=3.258±0.484, L1:r=12.379±1.839. 6…”

Effect of Electrical Microcurrent on Median Nerve Conduction Velocity and Mechanical Pain Threshold in the Median Nerve in a Randomized Single Blind Controlled Trial

“…is a relatively novel treatment in physical therapy field introduced in the United States in 1970, delivering electrical current in the microamperage range (µA) [1,2], thus it is analogous to in vivo currents [3]. Unlike other forms of electrical stimulation, MES is a type of subsensory stimulation modality [4,5].…”

“…The suggested mechanisms of MES to display its effect is through increasing ATP generation by about 500% via stimulation of the electron transport system in the mitochondria and enhancement of both amino acid transport and protein synthesis, leading to both cellular and extracellular matrix production and neogenesis of tissues [2,3].…”

“…Although MES is widely used in physiotherapy, still its mechanisms of action remain unclear [2], and given the scarcity of research regarding the neurophysiological effects of MES. So, the goal of the current work was to speculate the effectiveness of MES on the peripheral nerves and mechanical pain threshold, thereby might add to the overall understanding of the neurophysiological impacts of MES.…”

Effect of Combination Microcurrent Electrical Neuromuscular Stimulation and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy on the Regeneration of Injured Skeletal Muscle in Mice

“…The MENS current is in the microampere (µA) range. It has no known side effects, and it can be delivered with a compact device 1) . There have been reports that MENS facilitates the repair of soft tissue in the context of skeletal muscle injury [2][3][4][5][6] , ligament injury 7) , tendon injury 8) 9) , wound 10) , skin ulcer 11) , and bed-7 sore 12) .…”