[Siki_]

Hello

I have been doing IECP on patients for over a year now and the heading described in this forum surprises me as how can a patient suffer from Headaches,Dizziness,Leg chaffing,Fatigue,Muscle aches,Bruising,Skin irritation during or post IECP treatment. I have never had such problem with my patients. Yes Muscle pain was experience by few of my patients but that too in the first few treatment sessions. But having Headaches,Dizziness,Leg chaffing,Fatigue... well I never had such an issue till date.

But I would really like to know more. Has any one any experience on this ?

siki

[Eric]

Hello siki

There are basically two positions of the heart when it uses its muscles to contract enabling the blood filled in it to be pumped into various parts of the body. And then it relaxes and the blood is returned back to the heart with the recoil of the walls of the blood vessels. The time when the blood is being pumped by the heart is the systolic and the time when it is receiving the blood is the diastolic. This rhythm goes on and on without stop or interruption. This rhythm is used by the IECP machine and inflates the cuffs during diastolic and deflates during systolic (cuffs are wrapped around the patient's calves, lower thighs, and upper thighs). So the cuffs are inflated and deflated according to the rhythm of the patient's heartbeat. The cuffs are inflated one at a time in a sequence, from low (calves) to high (upper thighs) this sequence is completed before the systolic phase of the heart and all of the cuffs deflate simultaneously on the onset of systolic. The procedure causes no discomfort, although the patient will feel a squeeze as the cuffs are inflated, similar to the feeling experienced for a blood pressure cuff. This mechanical pressure exerted by the IECP cuffs can cause Muscle aches, Pressure sores, skin irritation, or bruising but this happens in very few patients normally very old and fragile patients. But if proper care is taken this can be eliminated by using proper slacks or padding at the point of cuffs. But I have found IECP cuffs to be already padded... (Good thinking).

This process can cause some patients to feel fatigued but after a few sessions, the feelings of fatigue decreases. As we all know since most of the patients for IECP have been living a dormant life style the sudden increase in blood flow will cause oxygenation of heart, brain etc and this may cause mild headache or dizziness or feeling some type of mild hyper activity in hands and legs. This passes of in due course of time and the IECP treatment starts becoming enjoyable.

Eric