Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on chest tube removal pain in patients after thoracic surgery in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences hospitals.

A grat number of patients all over theworld undergo thoracic surgery and need chest tube insertion and its removal later on. Removal of the chest tube leads to a sharp acute pain that is regarded as one of the worst experiences of the patients after the operation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of TENS controlling pain when removing the chest tube after thoracic surgery.

This double blind randomized clinical trial study was performed on 75 patients undergoing thoracic surgery at the Ghaem hospital of Mashhad- Iran who had at least one chest tube. Patients where divided into 3 groups: Tens، Placebo &control. TENS was applied to the area that surrounded the chest tube for 15 minutes before chest tube removal. Pain intensity was measured by visual analog scale before، immediately after and 15 minute after chest tube removal by the researcher. Data were analyzed with independent t-test، ANOVA and paired t-test.

There were significant statistic difference in intensity of the pain in these three groups before chest tube removal، Immediately، there was not significant difference in pain intensity scores of TENS (4. 1±2. 8) versus placebo (3. 86±1. 99) and control (4. 3±3. 28) groups. After 15 minutes، pain intensity score in TENS groups (1. 18±1. 91) was less than placebo (1. 58±0. 88) and control group (1. 24±1. 52).

The result of this study showed that the use of TENS and placebo، before، immediately and 15 minutes after chest tube removal does not have a clear and significant difference in comparison with the control group. So we can conclude that the single use of TENS. cannot be effective on the pain of chest tube removal and the usage of this pharmacologic and nursing method of pain relieving with complementary methods can be affective.