The effect of acupressure on the Pericardium 6 point on pain, nausea and vomiting after appendectomy

The use of acupressure is growing. Several studies have used acupressure on PC6 point to reduce postoperative nausea، vomiting and pain and have reported conflicting results. This study aimed to investigate the effect of acupressure of the PC6 point on pain، nausea and vomiting in patients after appendectomy. A single blinded randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 88 post appendectomy patients. Patients who have not any problem in the Pericardium 6 (PC6) point، having an age between 17 to 70 years، were in the list of appendectomy under general anesthesia were selected and were randomly assigned within two groups. In the intervention group، after parients recovered from anesthesia، using special acubands with a pressure button، acupressure was applied on PC6 acupoint. In the placebo (control) group، the acubands were loosely closed on the patients'' wrist. Acubands were kept for 7 hours and pain (using a visual analog scale)، nausea (using a visual analog scale) and frequency of vomiting، was measured hourly until the seventh postoperative hour. SPSS 11. 5 software was used for data analysis. T test، and Chi-square test was used. No significant differences in terms of age، body mass index، duration of anesthesia and the length of incision were observed between the three groups. Average pain intensity was not significantly different at different times in the two groups. Overall، 45. 4% of subjects in the PC6 group and 47. 7% in the placebo group experienced postoperative nausea. The mean of nausea intensity was lower in the PC6 group than the control group in all postoperative hours but the difference was not statistically significant. In total، 12 patients in the PC6 group and 18 ones in the control group had vomiting (p=0. 01). PC6 acupressure did not significantly reduce pain after appendectomy. However، it was clinically effective in reducing postoperative nausea and vomiting.