Julia Rei Ilagan

BSPT II

PHONOPHORESIS

It has long been known that application of ultrasound to the skin increases its permeability
(sonophoresis or phonophoresis) and enables the delivery of various substances into and through
the skin. Transdermal drug delivery offers several important advantages over traditional oral
delivery or injections, including minimizing gastric irritation, first pass effect, and pain. Ultrasound
of low to medium frequencies (20 to 200 kHz and 0.2 to 1 MHz, respectively) is predominantly
used for sonophoresis resulting from the relatively stronger cavitation effects. In 2004, the FDA
granted the use of the SonoPrep ultrasonic skin permeation device (Sontra Medical, Franklin,
Mass.) for use with topical lidocaine to achieve rapid (within 5 minutes) skin anesthesia. For
musculoskeletal disorders, phonophoresis with topical steroidal or nonsteroidal antiinflammatory
cream has been shown to be effective in pain reduction for patients suffering from, for example,
MPS, knee osteoarthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and epicondylitis

Biofeedback

Biofeedback is a therapeutic technique that uses various forms of auditory and visual
physiologic monitoring to teach patients to modify physiologic functions that are not normally
under conscious control. Common target responses include heart rate, blood pressure, skin
temperature, and muscle tension. Clinical approaches used during biofeedback training are
similar to those used in relaxation therapy and include diaphragmatic breathing, imagery,
progressive muscle relaxation, and autogenic training.

Laser Therapy

When an excited electron returns to its ground state, a photon is released. When having an
environment with unlimited excited electrons by applying an external power source to a lasing
medium, a triggering photon would cause a chain reaction to generate many photons when
contained in a pumping chamber (light amplification). The chamber usually has a totally reflective
mirror at one end and another semipermeable mirror at the other end. When a specific level of
energy is attained, photons of a particular wavelength are released through the semipermeable
mirror.

Reference:
Braddom, R (2011) Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 4th Ed.