Introduction: Nocturnal enuresis is an infrequent uncontrolled voiding during sleep in a child aged 5 years or more without any congenital or acquired disorders of the central nervous system.
Objective: To compare immediate and short-term effects of interferential currents (IFC) and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) in the treatment of children with primary nocturnal enuresis (PNE) in numbers of wet nights and quality of life (QoL).
Study design: 52 children aged 7-14 (10.6 ± 1.9) having PNE, were assigned randomly into two groups (26 children for each group). Both IFC and TENS groups continued treatment session for 20 min, 3 sessions per week for 6 weeks. The outcome measures were the number of wet nights, and QoL through pediatric incontinence questionnaire (PinQ).The measurements were evaluated before treatment (Pre-), after the last session (Post-1), and 6 months later (Post-2).
Results: By comparing the Pre- and Post-1 mean values, the number of wet nights, reduced significantly (P < 0.05) in both groups, in favor of IFC group. Post-1 showed many children with full and good responses and few numbers with partial or no responses to IFC than TENS. Post-1 revealed that PinQ was significantly reduced in both groups in favor of the IFC group (P < 0.05). The values were slightly improved in both groups in Post-2, they were significantly different between Pre- and post-measurements in each group (P < 0.05). Comparison between both groups showed significant differences in the mean values between Post-1 and Post-2 in favor of IFC group (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: IFC and TENS had immediate and short-term improvements in children with PNE by reducing numbers of wet nights and enhancing QoL in favor of the IFC group.
Keywords: Interferential currents; Primary nocturnal enuresis; Quality of life; Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation.