Effekte eines individuell abgestimmten Vibrationstrainings auf die Symptome einer Chemo-induzierten peripheren Polyneuropathie

Background: Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is a frequent side-ef-fect of neurotoxic chemotherapeutic agents in cancer therapy. The symptoms of CIPN including pain, loss of sensation and reduced balance control, lead to a re-duction in patient’s quality of life (QOL). This results in treatment delays, dose re-ductions or discontinuation of therapy. Until now effective treatment options, without other side-effects, are lacking. Physical activity has revealed a positive effect on the symptoms of CIPN. Whole Body Vibration (WBV) seems to have positive impacts of different CIPN affected parameters, including balance control, reflexes, pain and nerve conduction velocity.
Methods: In a randomized-controlled trial patients of the intervention group are given a WBV Training on a Galileo side-altering vibration platform twice a week. Patients are tested before and after a 12-week intervention and again after 12 weeks of follow-up of blinded staff members. Tests, including balance control measure-ment, a neurological assessment and questionnaires, valuate the symptoms of CIPN and the QOL of the patients.
Results: One of the participants showed better results in the follow-up testing than in the pretesting in 53% of the tests. She could improve her QOL and reduce CIPN symptoms. The other participant could not increase her level in 73% of the tests.
Discussion: Due to a small sampling size the results cannot give a general state-ment of the effectiveness of the Intervention. More participants and data are needed to give a suggestion of a WBV-Training.