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Electrotherapy is the use of electrical energy as a medical treatment.〔Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, "''The IEEE standard dictionary of electrical and electronics terms''". 6th ed. New York, N.Y., Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, c1997. IEEE Std 100-1996. ISBN 1-55937-833-6 (Standards Coordinating Committee 10, Terms and Definitions; Jane Radatz, (chair) )〕 In medicine, the term ''electrotherapy'' can apply to a variety of treatments, including the use of electrical devices such as deep brain stimulators for neurological disease. The term has also been applied specifically to the use of electric current to speed wound healing. Additionally, the term "electrotherapy" or "electromagnetic therapy" has also been applied to a range of alternative medical devices and treatments. It has not been found to be effective in increasing bone healing. ==History== The first medical treatments with electricity in London have been recorded as far back as 1767 at Middlesex Hospital in London using a special apparatus. The same was purchased for St. Bartholomew's Hospital only ten years later. The record of uses other than being therapeutic is not clear, however Guy's Hospital has a published list of cases from the earlier 1800s. In 1855 Guillaume Duchenne announced that alternating was superior to direct current for electrotherapeutic triggering of muscle contractions.〔Licht, Sidney Herman., "History of Electrotherapy", in Therapeutic Electricity and Ultraviolet Radiation, 2nd ed., ed. Sidney Licht, New Haven: E. Licht, 1967, Pp. 1-70.〕 What he called the 'warming affect' of direct currents irritated the skin, since, at voltage strengths needed for muscle contractions, they cause the skin to blister (at the anode) and pit (at the cathode). Furthermore, with DC each contraction required the current to be stopped and restarted. Moreover alternating current could produce strong muscle contractions regardless of the condition of the muscle, whereas DC-induced contractions were strong if the muscle was strong, and weak if the muscle was weak. Since that time almost all rehabilitation involving muscle contraction has been done with a symmetrical rectangular biphasic waveform. During the 1940s, however, the U.S. War Department, investigating the application of electrical stimulation not just to retard and prevent atrophy but to restore muscle mass and strength, employed what was termed ''galvanic exercise'' on the atrophied hands of patients who had an ulnar nerve lesion from surgery upon a wound.〔Licht, "History of Electrotherapy"〕 These galvanic exercises employed a monophasic wave form, direct current. In the field of cancer treatment, DC electrotherapy showed promise as early as 1959, when a study published in the journal ''Science'' reported total destruction of tumor in 60% of subjects, which was very noteworthy for an initial study. In 1985, the journal ''Cancer Research ''published the most remarkable such study, reporting 98% shrinkage of tumor in animal subjects on being treated with DC electrotherapy for only five hours over five days. The mechanism for the effectiveness of DC electrotherapy in treating cancer was suggested in an article published in 1997. The free-radical (unpaired electron) containing active-site of enzyme Ribonucleotide Reductase, RnR—which controls the rate-limiting step in the synthesis of DNA—can be disabled by a stream of passing electrons. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Electrotherapy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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