A comparative study on the effect of acupressure and ice bag on the pain during removal of femoral artery sheath in angioplasty patients: A clinical trial study

Pain is one of the common consequences of removing the arterial sheath. This study was performed to compare the effect of two methods of acupressure and ice pack on pain during arterial sheet removal in patients under angioplasty.

In this clinical trial, 90 patients were randomly assigned to three 30-member groups. In the ice bag group, an ice bag was placed on the right side of the patients’ femoral region for 15 min and then the sheath was removed. In the acupuncture group, the pressure was applied in the Heguchr('39')s point 20 min before the sheath removal. In the control group, only the nurse for 20 min. Visual analog scale touched the hand of patients (VAS) was used to measure the severity of pain.

The mean pain score in the ice pack and acupressure groups was 1.6 ± 1.6 and 2.4 ± 1.4, respectively, and in the control group was 4.03 ± 1.27. After the arterial sheet was removed, there was a significant difference between the three groups in terms of pain score (P= 0.0001). However, despite the lower score of the pain in the ice bag group, it showed no significant difference with the acupuncture group (P= 0.065).

Both intervention methods were effective in pain control. In addition, patients did not complain of either applying the ice bag or acupuncture. Thus, both of them can be used for this purpose.