Whirlpool Bath

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Whirlpool Bath

 

a therapeutic and prophylactic procedure consisting of massaging the body of a person submerged in a bathtub of water with a high-pressure stream of water. The temperature of the water in the bath is 35°-37°C. The stream of water is under a pressure of from 0.1 to 0.3-0.4 MN/m² (meganewtons per square meter), or from 1 to 3-4 kgf/cm² (kilograms-force per square centimeter), and is directed from a special apparatus equipped with a compressor which causes a whirlpool. The water is sucked out of the bathtub and directed through a hose at the body of the patient. Whirlpool baths are administered following the rules of an ordinary massage, directing the stream of water from the periphery toward the center and massaging first the extremities and then the trunk of the body (except the region of the heart and the genitalia). The effects of whirlpool baths are based on thermal and mechanical stimulation. They are administered in cases of metabolic disturbances and traumas of the joints, muscles, tendons, and the peripheral nervous system. They are also successfully used in athletic medicine.

REFERENCE

Syroechkovskaia, M. N. “Podvodnyi dush-massazh.” Voprosy kurortologii, fizioterapii i lechebnoi fizicheskoi kul’tury, 1961, no. 2, pp. 155-60.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.