THE ROLE OF ELECTROTHERAPY AND PHYSIOTHERAPY IN TREATING THE EXTERNAL POPLITEAL NERVE PARESIS

Abstract

The purpose of this observant study is to: evaluate the efficiency of electrotherapy and
physiotherapy, organizing individualized recovery programs based on the remaining functional
deficiency after the damage on the external popliteal nerve, and to realize an adequate familial,
social and professional integration.
The research was performed on a number of 12 subjects with the clinical diagnosis of
external popliteal nerve paresis, secondary to a lumbar hernia at L4-L5 level, and it was realized
on a period of time of 12 months (September 2009- august 2010). All the subjects have received
certain electrotherapy procedures and also individualized physiotherapy treatment, adapted to the
existing deficit.
The obtained results were materialized in the improvement of the functional indicators,
and also the adequate familial, social and professional integration.
The recovery of functional deficiencies, determined by the damage to the peripheral
nerves, more exactly the external popliteal nerve, is complex, and requires the usage of the most
efficient methods for improving the dysfunction.
Paraphrasing Kiss I. (2002), the physiotherapy must be exploited at maximum, and the
prevention, correction, and recovery, of the functional deficiencies, that may develop in all of the
disease`s stage, belong, largely, to the physiotherapist treatment.
Also Ennis, B.L. (1991), said that “electrotherapy represents an important part of the
physiotherapy process (analgesic and nerve stimulation), and together, these methods are
completing one another, having as a goal: mediation of the nervous transmission, improvement
of the contractile properties, trophic properties of the muscles and recruitment of as many motor
units as possible”.
In this sense, associating physiotherapy with electrotherapy, for improving the motor,
sensitive, vascular, and trophic deficiency, is the strategy from which will benefit the
optimization of recovery.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of electrotherapy and
physiotherapy, organize individualized recovery programs depending on the functional deficit,
which occurred after the damage on the external popliteal nerve, and also to realize a familial,
social and professional integration.
The hypotesis of the research, from which I began, was: “It is assumed that through the
usage of physiotherapy and electrotherapy, applied after a specific methodology, and accordingly
to the existing deficit, at patients with external popliteal nerve paresis, it can be
hoped of an optimization of the functional abilities, on the affected leg”.