I was in a car accident about 10 weeks ago, and sustained chest injuries. I was hit by a drunk driver without insurance! Imagine the luck. Anyway, for the past ten weeks I have been in and out of the doctor’s office, trying to avoid lifting anything and basically doing anything that would aggravate the still lingering pain. For anyone following my saga, I have written two other articles about this accident so far.
As a result of the fact that I haven’t yet healed and still exhibit pain in my chest, especially if I try to lift anything more than a pound or two, my doctor referred me to physical therapy. After the initial evaluation, my physical therapist consulted with my doctor, and they came up with Ionto Phoresis as something that would be part of my physical therapy treatment.
What in the world is Ionto Phoresis? Good question. That’s exactly what I said when I heard it for the first time, and what I worried about it the rest of the week until my next physical therapy session, wondering what they were going to be doing to me. It just sounds odd. Then, couple that with my being told to get a prescription filled for dexamethasone, and you see my wondering. To me, I immediately thought of crystal meth, and how crystal meth is not good for you!
To spare your mind, your heart, and your anxiety, I would like to fill you in on what I came to learn about Ionto Phoresis and dexamethasone. And, it wasn’t easy, because there really aren’t that many articles on the internet about it….. (You may also find it quite interesting and useful as a techique.)
Iontophoresis is a technique generally used in physical therapy to get drugs such as lidocaine and dexamethasone into one’s body by using an electric current. The benefits of using this technique are that a smaller amount of the drug is used, but a higher concentration reaches the affected area. The main use of Ionto Phoresis in physical therapy is to reduce inflammation in a musculoskeletal injury.
Dexamethasone is the drug used with the Iontophoresis. Dexamethasone is not crystal meth, or anything close to it. It’s a steroid. Steroids have negative connotations as well though, so I don’t necessarily take it more lightly that dexamethasone is a steroid. Traditionally, steroids have been used for many purposes, sometimes with negative consequences and often with negative side effects. Dexamethasone itself has been used in the past for treating inflammation and for autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. Cancer patients receive it often, to counteract the effects of other treatments. Dexamethasone is ofen prescribed to people after getting their wisdom teeth taken out, to help with the swelling.
The steroid dexamethasone is generally given in the form of a tablet or an injection. Its potency in these forms is 40-fold that of hydrocortisone, so its some powerful stuff! Like other steroids, it has some negative side effects, including stomach upset, allergic reactions, immunosuppressant action (making viral and bacterial disease easier progression in the body), increased appetite, muscle atrophy and psychiatric disturbances. Contraindications for this steroid include diabetes mellitus, cushing’s syndrome, severe hypertension, systemic tuberculosis, and severe systemic viral and bacterial infections.
The benefit thus to the Iontophoresis is that a much smaller dose of the drug is used, and thus the side effects are almost eliminated. Better yet, more of the drug reaches the affected area, which means that more effectiveness is seen for reducing inflammation.
Iontophoresis works like this. A charged substance, the dexamethasone, is placed in a chamber in the device. The electrical current then begins. The medicine is absorbed into the body part.
For this type of Iontophoresis, the dexamethasone used is as a solution of dexamethasone sodium phosphate. The solution is negatively charged. By applying the electrical current to the skin, the skin then attracts the negative charged solution and allows it to absorb into the tissue more than just placing the solution on the surface of the skin itself. In other words, the electric current helps the medicine get through the skin to the affected tissue.
My personal conclusion is that you have to decide for yourself whether to have this procedure done if it is recommended in physical therapy. Do the costs outweigh the risks? Even though you are not getting much of the steroid when it is administered in this fashion, you still are receiving steroid into your body. Also, there are two side effects that still may occur. A rash may develop at the site of the pads used for the medicine, if you are allergic to the steroids. If you have ever had an allergic reaction to a steroid, be careful for this. An example would be a reaction to cortisone, an over the counter treatment for itching, etc. The second side effect might be trouble breathing, which would also stem from an allergic reaction to dexamethasone. I also was unable to find any studies on the use of this procedure for my specific injury- I only found its use for joint inflammation.
As with any medical procedure or drug, I feel it is up to you to decide what is done to your body. I have written this article to give you an understanding of Iontophoresis, if it is ever recommended for you, and to let you know that there arerisks associated with using it. There are other techniques available for my specific condition, which may be used instead, such as massage of the muscles themselves, and TENS (Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation) to relieve stiffness and pain. Exercises may be introduced at some point.
