Comparison of The Effect of Using Back Massage with Hand and Warm Towel on Muscle Pain and Pulmonary Function of Patients Undergoing Open Heart Surgery Hospitalized in Selected Military Hospital in Shiraz

Pain management and promotion of pulmonary function are the most important goals in caring for patients undergone heart surgery and should be a priority in the care program.

The present study aimedto compare the effect of massage and hot towels on pain and pulmonary function in patients undergoing open-heart surgery.

The study population of this clinical trial study consists of all patients undergoing open-heart surgery in the intensive care unit of selected Aja hospitals of Shiraz in the second half of 2020. Ninety patients were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly assigned to three groups of heat therapy, massage therapy and control. For heat therapy group a 42 degree- heated towel was used, and for the massage therapy group, stroke massage was applied on the patient’s back in the second to fourth days after the operation. Visual pain scale and motivational spirometry results were used to collect data from the demographic information questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS 21. The significance level was considered less than 0.05.

In this study, the means of pain intensity and pulmonary function before the intervention were not significantly different in the three groups (P>0.05). But on the third and fourth days, it changed in the massage (P<0.001) and heat (P<0.001) groups. Massage therapy was more effective in reducing pain intensity.

The use of back massage by hands and hot-towels affect muscular pain and pulmonary function of patients undergoing CABG. Besides, itreduces pain and improves pulmonary function in patients. However, the present study found the effectiveness of hand massage Therefore, it is recommended that nurses caring for open-heart surgery patients use these two methods specifically hand massage.