Acupressure on pain, anxiety and sleep quality after cardiac surgery

Acupressure on Pain, Anxiety and Sleep Quality After Cardiac Surgery INTRODUCTION and OBJECTİVE: With the increased incidence of coronary artery diseases, surgical interventions are also increasing. Anxiety, pain and sleeping disturbances are the common symptoms among patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Good management of these symptoms is important for the healing process. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of acupressure on pain, anxiety and sleep quality after cardiac surgery. MATERIALS and METHOD: The study was conducted as a randomized controlled study. A total of 100 open cardiac surgery patients included in the study; which randomly divided into two study groups as acupressure and standard care group (n=50) and only standard care group (n=50). Patients' levels of pain, anxiety, and sleep disturbance evaluated during 3 days starting from their first day in the clinic. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was used to evaluate pain, while anxiety was evaluated by another Visual Analogue Scale (VSA-A) and BECK Anxiety Scale, and Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire (RCSQ) was used to evaluate the level of sleep disturbance. FINDINGS: Ninety-seven percent (n=97) of the entire sample had pain. While the average pain score was 4.38±1.19 among the entire sample, this ratio was found 4.46±1.19 in the intervention group and 4.30±1.19 in the control group. Among the entire sample, mean anxiety score was found 5.33±0.85 during the first evaluation while this ratio was found 5.62±0.63 in the intervention group and 5.04±0.94 in the control group. Sleep disturbance detected in 92% (n=92) of the entire sample. RCSQ scores were found 184.20±69.66 during the first evaluation of the entire sample while this ratio was found 177.00±64.12 in the intervention group and 191.30±74.77 in the control group. It was found that the levels of pain, anxiety were decreased significantly after the repetitive acupressure applications. Besides, with the acupressure application sleep depth, quality of falling asleep and sleep quality increased significantly. In addition to this, the frequency of waking up at night and the time spent without sleeping at night were decreased significantly. CONCLUSION: It was found that acupressure application done the points St6, GB20, MC6, and H7 decreased level of pain and anxiety, and increased the sleep quality. It was thought that acupressure is an easy-to-use and effective methods for using in clinical practice independently by health professionals. Keywords: Acupressure, cardiac surgery, pain, anxiety, sleep