Effectiveness of Muscle Relaxation on Pain, Pruritus and Vital Signs of Patients with Burns

Pain is the main complain of hospitalized patients suffering from burns. Anxiety، troubled interaction with others، disturbed sleep، movement defect، loss of appetite، low quality of life، and increase in healthcare and hospitalization costs are the consequences of non-alleviated pain and pruritus. Regarding this the present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of muscle relaxation on severity of pain، pruritus and vital signs among patients suffering from burns. In a semi-experiment study and by using a simple convenient sampling method، 110 hospitalized patients of Burn Ward were randomly chosen in two separated stages and allocated to case and control groups. It took two consecutive months to choose the controls and cases respectively. Tools for data gathering were as follows; demographic information، a pain visual analogue scale، and pruritus assessment scale and documentation form (vital signs، pruritus، pain). As the desired intervention، cases were delivered a twenty-minute Benson muscle relaxation and then their pain، pruritus and vital signs were measured and compared to these in controls. Achieved data were analyzed by SPSS software. There were no significant differences between severity of pain (mean of pain in controls and cases were 5. 8 and 6. 3 respectively)، itching (mean of pruritus in controls and cases were 3. 5 and 2. 6 respectively)، and vital signs (respiration، pulse rate، blood pressure، perspiration and dilated pupils) in two groups (p>0. 05). But، conversely، a post-intervention independent t-test revealed that there were significant differences between severity of pain (mean of pain in controls and cases were 5. 5 and 2. 2 respectively)، itching (mean of pruritus in controls and cases were 3. 6 and 2. 1 respectively) and vital signs (respiration، pulse، perspiration and dilated pupils) in two compared groups (p<0. 05). However، blood pressure showed no significant difference between two groups after intervention. Muscle relaxation technique can be effective in relieving the pain، pruritus and vital signs of patients suffering from burns. Therefore، its use as a therapeutic and alleviative method could be suggested for patients suffering from burns.