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Nurse-Led Chest Pain Management with AngioTENS
Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust
David Trenbath, Clinical Nurse Specialist (Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust).
Chronic refractory angina, despite surgical and medical treatment, is a chronic pain syndrome that can have profoundly damaging effects on the quality of life of patients and their families. Although
transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a highly effective and safe therapy for the management of many chronic pain conditions, it is not used to relieve chest pain as it can be uncomfortable for patients and there are fears that the treatment may cause cardiac arrhythmias.
AngioTENS (approved by the Medical Device Agency; MDD/93/42EEC) is a TENS unit specifically developed to help manage chronic chest pain. The discomfort associated with traditional TENS machines is commonly related to the variations in pulse width, frequency, current pattern and the output control of the amplitude. The AngioTENS device has been developed, based on evidence from clinical assessment and patient involvement, to work at settings specific for chest pain management with an amplitude control that can be altered by the patient to improve comfort of use.
An audit of the effectiveness of the AngioTENS machine in patients (n=47) rated severe Canadian class III-IV (a measure of cardiac disease) despite optimal anti-anginal medication, demonstrated that AngioTENS is a safe and effective long-term treatment for the relief of angina and neuropathic chest wall pain.
Image (top right): Dr David Groves (Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust) receiving the award on behalf of David Trenbath, and Sir David Henshaw (Chair, NHS North West).
Image (bottom right): Dr David Groves (Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust).