BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neurorehabilitation
Different types of electrostimulation target specific impaired sensory and motor functions in chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy: a secondary analysis of a controlled trial
Florian Rieder 1
Robert Sassmann 1
Yvonne Theres Kienberger 1
Vanessa Castagnaviz 1
Dagmar Schaffler-schaden 1
Tim Johansson 2
Gabriel Rinnerthaler 3
Maria Flamm 1
Richard Greil 1
Christoph Schulze 1
Simon Peter Gampenrieder 1
1. Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
2. Salzburg regional health fund (SAGES), Salzburg, Austria
3. Medizinische Universitat Graz, Graz, Austria
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Abstract
We performed a secondary data analysis of a previously published work to investigate the effects of different electrical stimulation modalities on specific impaired sensory and motor functions. Fifty-one patients with CIPN ≥ grade 1 subsequent to receiving platinum-and/or taxane-based chemotherapy were randomized to 8 weeks of high tone external muscle stimulation (HTEMS) or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). A control group (n=17) receiving no intervention was recruited retrospectively. Patients received 8 weeks of home-based electrotherapy for at least 5 days a week, for 30 minutes per day, using either TENS or HTEMS. Pre-post changes in the EORTC-QLQ-CIPN20 questionnaire were measured in the original study. For this secondary data analysis, sub analyses of the specific effects of TENS and HTEMS on the individual categories of the sensory and motor scale outcomes of the EORTC-QLQ-CIPN20 questionnaire were performed. For sensory function categories, HTEMS improved tingling of fingers or hands (p=.009) and the numbness of toes or feet (p=.018). TENS tended to reduced shooting or burning pain in the toes or feet (p=.051). TENS also tended to improve problems to stand or walk due to difficulties in feeling the ground (p=.051), while improvements after HTEMS reached significance (p=.045). For motor function categories, TENS improved difficulties opening a bottle due to weakness (p=.036) and HTEMS reduced difficulties in walking due to downward dropping of the feet (p=.015). There were no changes for any category in the control group. Electrotherapy is a useful tool for treating CIPN. A symptom-oriented selection of electrotherapy could be promising.
Summary
Keywords
CIPN, Electrotherapy5, HTEMS1, QLQ-CIPN204, TENS2
Received
24 June 2025
Accepted
09 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Rieder, Sassmann, Kienberger, Castagnaviz, Schaffler-schaden, Johansson, Rinnerthaler, Flamm, Greil, Schulze and Gampenrieder. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Florian Rieder
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