Determination of the effect of progressive relaxation exercise on postoperative pain level in patients undergoing open renal surgery

Purpose:. To investigate the effect of progressive relaxation exercise on open renal surgery patients with postoperative pain. Method: The study, conducted by experimental model, included 61 open renal surgery patients; 31 of whom in the intervention group and 30 in the control group. Progressive relaxation exercise was applied to the intervention group on days 0, 1, 2 and 3 postoperatively. Routine clinical application was performed for the control group. The data was collected with the help of patient diagnosis form, post-operative patient follow-up form and visual comparison scale. Findings: The study detected significant difference in the mean visual analogue scale pain severity values of the intervention group-which implemented progressive relaxation exercise- with regard to all the first and second postoperative measurements at the 2nd and 6th hours, and day 1, 2, 3. Further analysis characterised statistically significant decrease in visual analogue scale values. At the end of the 0-3 days follow-up, the mean visual analogue scale score was zero in the intervention group and 2.18 in the control group. The intervention group showed statistically significant (p<0.0001) difference between the repeated measurements of postoperative systolic and diastolic blood pressure values, and the heart and respiratory rates. The repeated measurements after 15 minutes of progressive relaxation exercise exhibited statistically significant decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure values and cardiac and respiratory rates. Conclusion: This study proves the progressive relaxation exercise to reduce the postoperative pain level of open renal surgery patients. Nurses and other health professionals are recommended to apply progressive relaxation exercise in postoperative pain management process. Key words: progressive relaxation exercise, open renal surgery, surgical nursing, postoperative pain.