Effect of Therapeutic Ultrasound and Maternal Cooling Gel Pad forPerineal Pain Following Vaginal Delivery with Episiotomy

Background and objectives: About 70% of women suffer trauma with or without episiotomy to the perineum during vaginal delivery and this commonly causes pain and discomfort which may persist for months postpartum. The present study was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic ultrasound and cooling maternal gel pads for perineal pain following vaginal delivery. Materials and methods: After obtaining ethical clearance from Institutional Ethical Committee, 30 women who underwent vaginal delivery with episiotomy and complained of perineal pain were recruited and randomly allocated to control (n-15) and interventional group (n-15). A written informed consent was signed by all the participants. Physiotherapy intervention included therapeutic ultrasound, cooling maternal gel pad for experimental group and placebo therapeutic ultrasound for control group twice daily for a period of 3 days. Outcome measures included Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain measurement and REEDA (Redness, Edema, Ecchymoisis, Discharge, Approximation) scale for healing process, which were documented on 1st day pre intervention and 3rd day post intervention respectively. Results: The results showed statistically significant reduction in VAS and REEDA scores in experimental groups with p=0.02. Conclusion: Therapeutic ultrasound and maternal cooling gel pad proved to be effective in reducing perineal pain following vaginal delivery with episiotomy.