Radio Short-Wave Treatment
TreatmentRadio Short Wave Therapy (see also Artificial Fever, Page 2750).—Radio short wave therapy is a modern method of producing deeply penetrating heat within the tissues of the body. It is an improved development of medical diathermy, in which the heating of local tissue by high frequency electric currents is employed. The principal difference between ordi¬nary medical diathermy and short wave currents is that the short wave currents will pass through ordinary insulating material. Direct contact of metal electrodes with the skin is thus rendered unnecessary. Short wave treatment can be given in much less time than can ordinary diathermy treat¬ment, often with better results and with less chance of produc¬ing skin burns. Short wave electric currents are oscillating. They do not flow constantly in one direction, but oscillate or alternate rhythmically, reversing their direction of flow each half cycle. These currents are of various voltages, amperages, and frequencies. Yet they all follow certain unchangeable electric laws. Short wave currents are applied by the use of insulated pads against the surface of the body, or by the use of discs or plates which do not touch the surface of the skin but are kept at variable distances from the skin. They are also applied by what is known as the induction method, involving the use of an insulated cable which is wrapped about the parts to be treated.
The length of time of treatment varies but is considerably less than in the ordinary medical diathermy treatment. The application of radio short wave causes the generation of heat in that part of the body within the electric field, producing dilation of the blood vessels and a consequent hyperemia. This form of treatment has been recommended for cases in which heat within the tissues is helpful. Such treatment is useful in many cases of chronic arthritis without bony ankylosis, in neuritis, neuralgia, lumbago, chronic female pelvic conditions, sinusitis, bronchitis, infections, boils, carbuncles, pneumonia, and other conditions where deeply penetrating heat is bene¬ficial.