The Effect of Foot Massage on Post operative Pain in Patients Following Abdominal Surgery

Kim, Jin Hee; Park, Kyung Sook

Abstract

More and more non-injured operations are being implemented these days, thanks to the development of medical technology. Still, however, most operations leave direct scars on patient' bodies, as well as accompanying pain. The massage as an independent nursing intervention can stimulate the circulation of the blood of tissue and muscle and increase the relationship between a patient and a nurse. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of foot massage on pain in post abdominal operative patients. The nonequivalent control group, pre-post test design is used for this study. From July 7, 2000 to February 20, 2001, the 40 patients who were operated under general anesthesia in a university hospital in Seoul were studied. They were divided into two groups ; 20 patients were part of the experimental group, and the others, in the control group. In order to evaluate the effect of foot massage, severity of pain was checked with the VAS (Visual Analog Scale) and also each patients' vital signs were measured with pulse rate, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. The collected datas were processed by SAS version 6.12 program and analyzed by the Chi-square, Fisher?s exact test, t-test and repeated measures ANOVA. The results of this study were as follows. 1. The severity of pain decreased significantly in the experimental group as compared to the control group following foot massage (t= -3.317, p= .002). 2. Measured vital signs in the experimental group had more reduction of that than in the control group following foot massage. -The pulse rate in the experimental group was lower than that in the control group following foot massage (F=7.73, p=.008). -The systolic blood pressure in the experimental group was lower than that in the control group following foot massage (F=25.75, p=.000). -The diastolic blood pressure in the experimental group was lower than that in the control group following foot massage (F=15.27, p=.000). In conclusion, foot massage is an effective dependent nursing intervention for pain control of post abdominal operative patients.