Efficacy of pneumomassage in the comprehensive treatment of polyneuropathies of various origins

Objective: to evaluate the efficacy of limb pneumomassage as one of the components of comprehensive treatment for patients with polyneuropathies of various origins. Material and methods. This study included 77 patients (36 men and 41 women) with limb polyneuropathies treated in the Department of Neurology, Alexander-Mariinsky Regional Clinical Hospital. The mean age of women was 64 ± 9.6 years, while the mean age of men was 58 ± 7.4 years. All study participants were divided into 5 groups depending on the causes of their limb polyneuropathy. Group 1 included 30 patients (14 men and 16 women) with axonal polyneuropathies plus sensologic syndrome, ataxia, toxic polyneuropathies, diabetic polyneuropathies, and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathies. Group 2 comprised 16 patients (6 men and 10 women) with multiple sclerosis plus lower paraparesis, cerebellar ataxia. Group 3 included 11 patients (7 men and 4 women) with discogenic vascular myelopathy of the thoracic and lumbosacral spine plus paraparesis and gait disorders. Group 4 comprised 10 patients (4 men and 6 women) after ischemic strokes with hemiparesis. Group 5 was composed of 10 patients (5 men and 5 women) with hereditary diseases, including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, Curschmann-Batten-Steinert syndrome plus tetraparesis, late-onset cerebellar degeneration with ataxia. All patients received pharmacotherapy that included vascular, neuroprotective, analgesic, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory agents, as well as exercise therapy, acupuncture, and limb pneumomassage. The control group included 21 patients (11 men and 10 women) with polyneuropathies of various origins, who received standard treatment without pneumomassage. The STATISTICA-16 software was used for data amalysis. We performed correlation analysis and calculated Pearson correlation coefficients. Results. We found that limb pneumomassage improved the condition of patients with metabolic, toxic, and inflammatory polyneuropathies. However, limb pneumomassage was ineffective in patients with hereditary polyneuropathies due to more significant and irreversible lesions of the nervous system.