Effect of cold serum physiological application on pain during sharp debridation in patients with diabetic foot: A randomized controlled single blind study

Aim: This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of cold saline application on pain and granulated tissue areas during sharp debridement in patients with diabetic foot. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out as a randomized controlled single-blind experimental study with 64 patients (experimental group =32, control group =32) hospitalized in Adnan Menderes University Hospital between September 2020 and November 2021. During the sharp debridement of the experimental group, cold saline (+4 °C to 8 °C) was applied, while the control group was administered saline at room temperature (+18 °C to 26 °C). The data were collected with the "Structured Question Form, VAS Pain Scale and Surface Area of Wound Area Form ".VAS pain scale was applied to both groups both before and during the procedure. In the analysis of data; descriptive statistics Chi-Square, Mann Whitney U, Student-t and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests were used. Ethics institution approval and institutional permission were obtained for the research. Results: While 84.4% of the experimental group was male and the mean age was 61.8%, 65.6% of the control group was male and the mean age was 65.5. It was determined that the sociodemographic patient-diagnosis-treatment, laboratory findings, PEDIS classification and wound area characteristics of the experimental and control groups showed a homogeneous distribution and there was no statistically significant difference between the groups (p>0,05). It was determined that the pre-procedural VAS score of the experimental group decreased (p<0,001) significantly before the procedure, while the control group increased (p<0,001) significantly. When the VAS scores of the experimental and control groups were compared both before the procedure (p=0,003) and during the procedure (p<0,001), it was found that there was a significant difference between them. It was determined that the value of granulated tissue surface area before the procedure in both the experimental and control groups was statistically different from the value after the procedure (p<0.000). Results : In this study, it was concluded that the application of cold saline during the sharp debridement procedure in patients with diabetic foot reduced pain. Keywords: Pain, diabetic foot, sharp debridement, cold application.