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Effectiveness of Progressive Muscle Relaxation Technique on Post Operative Pain and Anxiety Among patients Who Have Undergone Abdominal Surgery

Sabitha Daniel, J. V. Sindhu

Abstract


Persons undergoing surgery frequently experience intense level of pain and anxiety that may reduce their self-efficacy and thus affect their recovery. Because of side effects from opioids, it is important to use non-pharmacological methods in addition to analgesics to decrease the discomfort and anxiety. A quasi experimental study was done to assess the effectiveness of progressive muscle relaxation on post-operative pain and anxiety after initial ambulation among patients who have undergone abdominal surgery. Using purposive sampling, 64 samples were selected and assigned to experimental and control group. Progressive muscle relaxation was given to experimental group during recovery from the first ambulation after surgery. Post-operative pain was measured before intervention and after five minutes and 15 minutes of intervention. State anxiety was measured on day before surgery and after 15 minutes of the intervention. On pretest posttest comparison among groups, both groups had statistically significant pain reduction at five minutes and 15 minutes (P <0.05). The mean reduction of post-operative pain among experimental group at five minutes (32.97±11.26) and 15 minutes (54.84±12.77) showed higher reduction of post-operative pain compared to control group at five minutes (26.09± 9.71) and 15 minutes (41.66±9.80). The P value of independent ‘t’ test at five minutes (P = .010<0.05) and 15 minutes (P <.001) were significant. The paired ‘t’ value of anxiety between pretest and posttest score of experimental group (P = .76 > 0.05) and control group (P= .056>0.05) as well as the independent ‘t’ value among groups (P = .70>0.05) were not significant. Thus, progressive muscle relaxation technique did not result in reduction of anxiety among groups and the study concluded that the progressive muscle relaxation technique used may be an effective measure to reduce post-operative pain among patients who have undergone abdominal surgery, immediately after first ambulation out of bed.


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References


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