Prevention of Postoperative Leg Vein Thrombosis by Electrical Muscle Stimulation. An Evaluation with 125I-Labelled Fibrinogen

Patient tolerance of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) in the presence of orthopaedic implants

“…Perioperative NMES has been previously investigated on patients during general elective surgery while under anesthesia, with mostly positive results [1,3,4]. While there has been a demonstrated reduction in DVT rates in general surgery associated with the use of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES); the clinical use of calf muscle NMES as DVT prevention methodology has yet to be established [3,14,15].…”

“…Despite early reports indicating the effectiveness of NMES at preventing DVT in general surgical patients, the technique has not gained the same widespread acceptance as other mechanical techniques such as intermittent pneumatic compression or graduated compression stockings [1][2][3][4]. Early implementations of NMES devices were so uncomfortable that they could only be used when the patient was under anaesthetic [1].…”

Deep Vein Thrombosis: Risk Factors and Prevention in Surgical Patients

“…42 Electrical stimulation of the calf muscles during operation is effective against DVT. 43 Two electrodes are applied to the calf and a low voltage is used to contract the muscles every 2-4 seconds. This method originally recommended by Doran and White reduces intra-operative venous pooling in the calves.…”

NICE guidelines on reducing the risk of venous thromboembolism (deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism) in patients undergoing surgery

“…Browse and Negus (1970) reported that electrical stimulation reduces the risk of DVT by 59%, in patients' own experimental and control legs. There is no evidence that ES reduces incidence of PE (Lindstrom et al, 1982).…”