The impacts of short-term foot massage on mean arterial pressure of neurosurgical patients hospitalized in intensive care units

Short term foot massage helps regulate the vital signs of patients who are hospitalized for long periods of time in intensive care units. The purpose of this study was “to examine the immediate impacts of short-term foot massage on mean arterial pressure among neurosurgical patients hospitalized in intensive care units”. This quasi-experimental study was conducted in 2013 on 78 patients who had been conveniently recruited from the intensive care units of Imam Reza (PBUH) Hospital, Kermanshah, Iran. Patients were equally and randomly assigned to the experimental and the control groups. Study data were collected by using a demographic questionnaire and a blood pressure data sheet which were completed through observation, interviewing, and physiologic measurement. Mean arterial blood pressure was measured both five and one minutes before the intervention. Then, the feet of each patient in the experimental group were massaged for five minutes and mean arterial pressure was re-measured one and five minutes afterward. The SPSS16 was used for calculating the measures of descriptive statistics and conducting the paired- and the independent-samples t tests. In the experimental group, mean arterial blood pressure decreased significantly both one minute (93.23±14.16; p=0.005) and five minutes (89.76±13.66; p<0.005) after the study intervention. However, within-group comparison revealed that means arterial blood pressure did not change significantly in the control group after the intervention. Foot massage is effective in decreasing mean arterial pressure and giving patients a sense of calmness.