DIATHERMY

DIATHERMY

INTRODUCTION

Diathermy is a therapeutic treatment commonly prescribed for muscular and joint associated pains.

-The term ‘diathermy’ means ‘through heating’ or producing deep heating directly in the tissues of the body.

-‘Dia’ means through (also means two).

-‘thermy’ means heat or temperature.

It stimulates the circulation, relieve pain, enhances rate of recovery of healing the tissue.

PRINCIPLE OF DIATHERMY

1.Before injury, the dipole molecules of the body tissue are arranged on the basis of polarity. 

2.When the tissue is damaged the dipoles distribution become irregular and deviates from polarity based arrangement. 

3.Under the influence of an electric field, they rotate according to the polarity of their charge in the direction of the field lines and get rearranged and tends to acquire its previous stage of polarity.

CHALLENGES OF DIATHERMY

1.As the subcutaneous layer is fatty, direct delivery of heat to the deep layers of tissue is not possible.

2.Diathermy involves uneven and uncontrolled delivery of heat therefore sometimes instead of the target tissue, surrounding tissue gets affected.

• Diathermy uses an electric current to produce heat deep inside a targeted tissue.

• It can reach areas as deep as two inches from the skin’s surface.

• The diathermy machine does not apply heat directly to the body.

• Instead, the current from the machine allows the body to generate heat from within the targeted tissue.

• As the heat increases, it promotes blood flow. • It can also help improve flexibility in stiff joints and connective tissue.

TYPES OF DIATHERMY

1.Short wave diathermy.

2. Long wave diathermy.

3.Micro wave diathermy.

4.ultrasound diathermy.

5.Laser diathermy.

BENEFITS OF DIATHERMY

1.Intense heat delivered provides pain relief and         better flexibility.

2.Reduces inflammation.

3.Improves circulation.

4.Accelerate healing.