The effect of reflexotherapy on chemotherapy-induced vomiting of patients

Background and aimVomiting as a side effect of chemotherapy causes to refuse or delay in treatment by most cases. Nowadays, for controlling these side effects researchers attempt to use noninvasive-, safe- and low cost methods, instead of expensive drugs with various side effects. This study aimed to assess effect of reflexotherapy on vomiting reduction among patients under chemotherapy, in oncology-hematology ward of Zahedan's Ali Ebn Abitaleb Hospital in 2010.Materials and MethodsThis study was a before and after clinical trial (pre-test and post-test) with a group of 37 patients. The participants were selected using purposeful sampling method and based on the results of a pilot study. They were also considered once in the control group (receiving anti-vomiting drug Granisetron) and after 15 to 20 days in the interventional group (receiving reflexotherapy in a period of 10 minutes for each leg). The Summary of Morrow Questionnaire and CTCv2.0 (Common Toxicity Criteria Version 2) of National Cancer Institute of America were used for making a questionnaire to data collection. Face and content validity of questionnaire and its reliability (Chronbach alpha Coefficient (73/0= was confirmed beforehand. Data was analyzed using central and dispersion indexes as well as Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests and Marginal modeling (generalized estimating equations GEE).FindingsThe mean age of samples was 44.73 ±13.38 (years). Majority of participants were married and women. Patients were in their second to 15th cycle of chemotherapy; receiving Cisplatin–Gemzar or Adriamycin-cyclophosphamide and were from breast cancer cases. Assessment of severity of vomiting during first 24 hours showed more sever vomiting in the first 4 hours among control group than interventional group (p<0.001), but it was more severe in interventional gropup than control group in third 4 hours (p<0.001) and the second 12 hours (p=0.006). During the second 4 hours, severity of vomiting was not significantly different between the two Groups (p=0.313). Finnally, the results showed no significant difference between two treatment methods respecting their effect on severity (p=0.153) and the number of vomiting (p=0.239) during the 24 hours after treatment.ConclusionAlthough reflexotherapy was not shown to have positive effect on chemotherapy induced vomiting of patients but it caused to reduce severity and number of vomiting in the first 4 hours after chemotherapy among patients with moderate and sever vomiting. Therefore, experimental study using reflexotherapy is recommended in multiple sessions.