Heat Therapy
BREAKTHROUGH DATA:
BENEFITS OF CONTINUOUS LOW-LEVEL HEAT THERAPY LAST FOR DAYS AFTER TREATMENT OF ACUTE LOW BACK PAIN
— Heat Wrap Use While Sleeping Can Provide Pain Relief Throughout the Next Day —
Great Neck, NY (March 19, 2003) – Results from two clinical studies recently published in this month's issue of Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation demonstrated that eight hours of continuous, low-level heat provides effective relief from acute low back pain that lasts up to 48 hours after treatment, a first for back pain remedies.
"In conducting these studies, our goal was to apply rigorous scientific methods to assess the efficacy of applying eight hours of continuous, low-level heat therapy during the day or night for the treatment of acute low back pain," said Deborah J. Steiner, M.D., the principal investigator of the trials and Director of Clinical Research, Research Testing Laboratories, Great Neck, NY. "The results not only confirmed that continuous, low-level heat therapy provides significant therapeutic benefits, but that these benefits can extend for up to two days following the end of treatment."
The daytime treatment study consisted of 219 subjects, with at least moderate to severe acute, nonspecific low back pain, who were randomized to one of two main treatment groups: eight hours of continuous, low-level heat therapy per day for three consecutive days (ThermaCare® Heat Wrap, The Procter & Gamble Company, Cincinnati, OH) or oral placebo. ThermaCare Heat Wraps heat to 104°F (40°C) within 30 minutes of exposure to air and maintain this temperature continuously for at least an eight hour period of wear.
Dr. Steiner and colleagues found that the Heat wrap group showed significantly greater pain relief (68%) on day 1 of treatment when compared to placebo. In addition, twice as many patients (15.4% vs. 6.6%) in the heat wrap group reported complete pain relief during the entire study compared to patients who received placebo treatment.
The companion study of the same design with 76 subjects measured the efficacy of continuous, low-level heat therapy during sleep and found that eight hours of overnight use of ThermaCare Heat wraps was associated with effective pain relief throughout the entire next day. Similar to the daytime study, the benefits were sustained more than 48 hours after treatment completion. The nighttime study also showed that Heat wrap use reduced muscle stiffness and disability, and improved trunk flexibility.
"The nighttime study was the first of its kind to show that therapy with ThermaCare Heat wraps yields significant pain relief that lasts for more than two days after treatment," added Dr. Steiner. "The good news is that these benefits are accessible to physicians and pain sufferers alike with over-the-counter ThermaCare Heat wraps"
Research Testing Laboratories is a forty-five year old full-service Contract Clinical Research Organization (CRO) headquartered in Great Neck, New York. The Site Management (SMO) arm of RTL has three multi-specialty clinical centers with twenty investigators, all in the greater metropolitan New York area, where a variety of outpatient clinical trials are conducted.
