Effect of Foot Reflexology on Postoperative Pain Among Patients After Gastrointestinal Surgery

Abstract

An interventional study was conducted to assess the effect of Reflexology on postoperative pain among patients after gastrointestinal surgery at Sri Ramakrishna Hospital, Coimbatore. Quasi experimental pretest–posttest with control group design was adopted and purposive sample of 24 participants after 6 hrs of surgery were included for the study. Informed consent was obtained from the selected patients after brief explanation of the study and intervention. A pretest was done using the Numerical Pain Intensity Rating Scale. Foot reflexology was administered to the patients by the researcher, for 20 minutes; 10 minutes on each leg and 2 times daily till the discharge of the patients in a calm and quiet atmosphere. A posttest was conducted using the same tool to find the effect of foot reflexology on postoperative pain. The findings of the study reveal that application of foot reflexology is effective in reducing postoperative pain after gastrointestinal surgery.