Effects of single and serial water immersion on venous function

Journal/Book: Perfusion 11/98 - 2053. 1998;

Abstract: 1 Institute for Applied Physiology und Balneology University of Freiburg Germany 2 Department of Complementary Medicine Postgraduate Medical School University of Exeter UK Summary Recent reports in the scientific literature have described positive effects of spa therapy including pain reduction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA). Rheumatic patients with concomitant chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) are routinely excluded from spa therapy. The justification for this has traditionally been that daily immersion in a thermal bath could exacerbate the condition by promoting heat-induced dilation of already compromised vessels. However haed data to justify this are scarce. We measured the effects of a balneo-therapeutic treatment on venous hemodynamics ans microcirculation in a controlled cross-over study of healthy subjects and in an open clinical study of patients with CVI (stage I-II). Neither single nor serial immersion had a significant effect on venous capacity capillary filtration rate laser doppler flowmetry or transcutaneous pO2/CO2. These findings do not support the routine exclusion of patients with RA and/or OA and concomitant CVI (stage I-II) from spa therapy. hl

Keyword(s): rheumatoid arthritis osteoartritis spa therapie balneotherapie venous insufficiency hemodynamics

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