Therapeutic electric currents in the treatment of cervicalgy: integrative review

Neck pain is associated with factors such as sudden exertion, inappropriate postures, emotional issues and bad lifestyle habits. For this reason, physiotherapists use electro-electronic equipment that emits electromagnetic radiation to treat cervical dysfunctions. The aim of this study was to present the applicability of therapeutic electrical currents in the treatment of neck pain. This is bibliographical research, with a search in online libraries in the following databases: SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online), Portal of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes), US National Library of Medicine National institutes of Health (Pubmed), in addition to Classic books. For the search and analysis of the studies, the following Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS) were evaluated and used: TENS and neck pain; Neck pain and Electric currents; Functional electrical stimulation and neck pain; combined with Boolean operators (OR and AND). The eligibility criteria for the selection of articles were: articles in Portuguese and English; published in the period from 2012 to 2022; randomized controlled clinical trials and non-controlled studies, applied in a human model. The study reveals that among the main types of therapies used for cervical pain, Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) was the one that presented the most positive results, according to the studies revisited. It was verified, through the analyzed survey, that the increase of electrotherapy to physiotherapy can potentiate the conducts, especially to relieve pain in cases of acute and chronic neck pain.