Shiatsu Massage and the Pain Intensity of Venipuncture in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis

According to the statistics, hemodialysis is a widely used medical practice for patients with kidney problems. This method involves frequent intravenous cannulation, which is associated with an intense pain insofar, as it is expressed intolerable by one fifth of patients undergoing hemodialysis.
This study aimed to investigating the effect of shiatsu massage as a non-pharmacological and non-aggressive method on venipuncture pain in patients undergoing hemodialysis.
This randomized clinical trial was conducted with participation of 72 patients undergoing hemodialysis, visiting the hemodialysis wards of AJA hospitals in Tehran in 2015. Patients were first divided into intervention and control groups using random number table. On the first visit, demographic information of both groups were collected using demographic inventory and their pain was measured with pain assessment scale. On the second visit, 20-minute shiatsu massage of the point LI-4 was given to the intervention group before intravenous cannulation, and the amount of pain at the insertion site was measured again with the same scale. The collected data was analyzed with descriptive and inferential tests using SPSS 19.
There were no significant differences between the two groups in background variables using chi-squared, Fisher’s exact and independent t-tests. The mean pain scores at the insertion site were 5.91 ± 0.8 versus 5.75 ± 0.64 in the intervention and control groups, respectively. This between-group difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.87). The mean post-intervention pain score was significantly lower in the intervention group than the control group (3.69 ± 1.16 versus 5.61 ± 0.76) (P = 0.001).
Discussion and The research findings suggested that the use of shiatsu massage of the point LI-4 (between the thumb and the index finger of patient with arteriovenous fistula) can decrease the pain at the site of insertion. Therefore, nurses are recommended to use this technique to ease the pain at the insertion site in patients undergoing hemodialysis.