Effects of positioning on patients back pain and comfort after coronary angiography

Coronary angiography is the golden diagnostic test for coronary heart disease. After the procedure, for minimizing the complications (mostly bleeding and hematoma) patients are restricted to bed rest for 8 to 24 hours that is always accompanied by patients back pain and discomfort. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of changing patients position on back pain, comfort, amount of bleeding and hematoma. Subjects were randomly assigned to the experimental (changing position) and the control group. Visual analog scale was used to measure pain intensity and comfort level, and a specific ruler was used to measure the amount of bleeding and hematoma. The experimental group had significantly lower pain scores and higher comfort scores than the control group at 3, 6, 8 hours, and at the next morning after angiography (p<0.01). Changing patients position according to the designed protocol produced no significant increase in the amount of bleeding and hematoma compared to the control group. The results showed that changing patients position after angiography is practically feasible, and is associated with decreased level of back pain and increased comfort level without increasing the amount of bleeding and hematoma.