Effects of change positioning on vascular complications and comfort in patients undergoing heart catheterization

Coronary heart diseases are increasing and one of the gold standards for diagnosis is coronary angiography (CA). Bed rest after CA may cause back pain. Since, there are a few studies about change position effects on reducing back pain and patients comfort during bed rest after CA in Iran, The study was designed to explore these effects in Taleghani hospital patients (2006-2007). This clinical trial was conducted on 130 patients hospitalized for coronary angiography. Each Patient was assigned randomly to either the control group, which remained supine position 6 hours of bed rest after CA, or experimental group. The experimental group was changed position hourly, varying between supine, elevated to 3o degrees and semi position (elevated to 45 degrees) during the first 6 hours after coronary angiography. Check list and numeric pain intensity scale were used for data collection. None of patients developed bleeding, haematoma and arterial thrombosis, so there was no significant difference between two groups. There was significantly less pain intensity of back pain (P<0/001) and nausea (P<0/01) in experimental group. Urinary difficulty, Groin and leg pain were lower in the experimental group but they were not significantly different between two groups. Changing positions in bed without increased vascular complications may cause reduced back pain; promote physical comfort among patients who had undergone coronary angiography.