Effect of Cryotherapy on the severity of Thoracic Pain in Patients Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) Surgery

Patients experience severs pain after cardiac surgery due to incision of anatomical components of the chest wall. Given that the cryotherapy is one of the simplest and cheapest non-pharmacological methods of pain relief, the current study was conducted to determine the effect of cryotherapy on the severity of thoracic pain in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting surgery.
This clinical trial study was conducted on 50 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting surgery in one of the educational hospitals in Zahedan in 2015. Patients were selected conveniently and then were randomly allocated into two intervention and control groups (each group containing 25 patients). At first, pain of patients was measured in two groups after three cycles of deep breathing and coughing by using visual analogue scale. In intervention group, ice pack was used on the chest wound dressing of patients for 20 minutes alternatively at 5 minutes intervals in intervention group. Then, both groups received emotional support for 15 minutes and the pain score was measured again. Data were analyzed using Chi-square, independent t-test, Paired t-test, and analysis of covariance tests in SPSS 21.
The mean pain score before the intervention in the intervention and control groups were 60.16±13.45 and 58.64 ± 14.42, respectively. These values were changed after cryotherapy to 45.16 ± 15.25 in the intervention group and 58.60 ± 14.40 in the intervention group (P The use of cryotherapy can reduce severity of Thoracic Pain related to coughing and deep breathing in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting surgery. Therefore, this method can be used as a non-pharmacological method of pain relief.