The Effect of Foot Massage Duration on Vital Signs of Patients with Cerebrovascular Accidents with Lowered Level of Consciousness in the Intensive Care Unit

Stroke is caused by a disturbance in the blood flow to a part of the brain, and it is the most common disorder that requires long-term care. Maintaining the stability of vital signs in stroke patients with modern non-pharmacological methods is very important, so this study was conducted to investigate the effect of foot massage duration on vital signs of patients with cerebrovascular accidents in the intensive care unit.

In this clinical trial, 64 patients were randomly assigned into two groups (32 people) of intervention 1 and 2. Samples were selected from patients with cerebrovascular accidents with lowered level of consciousness admitted to the intensive care unit. A four-step foot massage was performed similarly 5 minutes in group 1, and 10 minutes in group 2. In the groups, vital signs were measured and compared 2 minutes before the massage and in the first and fifth minutes after the massage.

According to the findings, the mean heart rate (79±10.62 and 76.50±9.72) and respiration (16±3.20 and 15.03±3.02) decreased in the intervention groups (1 and 2) in the first minute and the fifth minute after massage (p<0.001). Mean arterial pressure in intervention group 2 (95.15±12.54 and 92.09±12.63) decreased in the first and fifth minutes after massage (p<0.001). Body temperature in group 1 in the fifth minute after massage (36.99±0.37 and 36.95±0.36) showed a decrease (p=0.005). There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in changes of physiological indices.

According to the results of this study, foot massage duration has no effect on the stability of vital signs and short-term massage has the same effect as long-term massage.