Survey the effect of foot reflexology on pain and physiological parameters after cesarean section in patients referring to Alzahra Educational Center in Rasht

• Main Authors: mehrnoosh Khoshtarash, atefeh ghanbari, moohamadreza yeganeh, ehsan kazemnezhad, parvaneh rezasoltani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shahid Beheshti School of Nursing and Midwifery, Rasht 2010-10-01
• Series: Journal of Holistic Nursing and Midwifery
• Subjects: Postoperative pain; Cesarean section; Palliative Care; Foot reflexology massage
• Online Access: http://hnmj.gums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-243-141&slc_lang=en&sid=1

Introduction: Pain is a common phenomenon after all surgical operation. Acute and unrelieved pain can cause physical and mental complications, delayed recovery and prolonged hospitalization. Although using analgesia is usual to relieve pain, its complication, unavailability, necessity of taking less drug, especially analgesia, and also ineffectiveness of using analgesia alone, to relieve pain has focused today's nursing system on complementary treatments and non-pharmacological interventions such as foot reflexology. Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of foot reflexology on pain in cesarean section patients. Methods: This clinical trial study was carried out on 62 women who referred to for cesarean section Alzahra Hospital (Rasht city). They were randomly divided into two groups of case and control. The reflexology group received a 30-minute foot massage in two sessions, with 24-hours interval. Data gathering tool included a demographic form, step-visual analogue scale and pain score form. Data were analyzed with descriptive and analytic statistic tests using SPSS version 15. Results: There was no demographical difference between two groups and they were matched completely. In case group, severity of pain after first stage of foot reflexology was significantly lower than before reflexology session and also in control group respectively(p<0.001, p<0.0001). The severity of pain after second stage was significantly reduced in case group a compared with control group. Conclusion: In general, foot reflexology appears to be a useful method for reducing postoperative pain.