Does Foot Massage Relieve Acute Postoperative Pain? a Literature Review

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the current state of knowledge regarding foot massageto determine if foot massage has an effect on relieving acute postoperative pain.Method: The following questions were used to guide this review: How does pain occur?What is the pain management modalities used in relieving acute postoperative pain? Does footmassage relieve acute postoperative pain? A comprehensive systematic search of publishedliterature and journal articles from Science Direct, CINAHL, PubMed, ProQuest and fromrelevant textbooks was conducted. The universal case entry website, Google-scholar was usedas well. The following keywords were used: foot massage, pain management, andpostoperative pain. Eight studies on foot massage and more than thirty related articles werereviewed.Result: Postoperative pain is caused by tissue damage that induces release of chemicalmediators from the surgical wound. The four processes of pain are transduction, transmission,perception and modulation. Pain medication is the goal standard for acute postoperative painrelief. In addition, foot massage is a modality that can be used in relieving acute postoperativepain. Massage stimulates large nerve fibers and dermatome layers which contain tactile andpressure receptors. The receptors subsequently transmit the nerve impulse to the centralnervous system. The gate control system in the dorsal horn is activated through the inhibitoryinterneuron, thus closing the gate. Subsequently, the brain does not receive the pain message.Eight reviewed studies demonstrated that foot massage relieves acute postoperative pain.However, there were some methodological limitations of these studies.Conclusion: It is recommended to examine the effect of foot massage on acute postoperativepain with high homogenous samples using various duration of massage and range of time forpain measurement at different settings

Nausea, Vomiting and Retching of Patients with Cervical Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy in Bali, Indonesia

Background: Nausea, vomiting and retching (NVR) was the frequently reported and troublesome adverse effect for patients receiving chemotherapy. Purpose: This study is a part of a larger study which aims to describe the NVR symptom experience in cervical cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in Bali, Indonesia, and examine relationships with individual's risk factors. Method: Sixty-six patients with stage II and III cervical cancer receiving Paxus (Paclitaxel)-Cisplatin at the second or the third cycle were enrolled. NVR was measured by the Index of Nausea, Vomiting and Retching (INVR) at the second day of their chemotherapy. This current study included only patients with age ranged between 32 to 65 years (M = 47.15, SD = 9.64, min-max age 35 – 65 years). Result: The result showed that the NVR score was at a moderate level. Younger subjects (age 32-50 years old) reported significantly higher NVR scores than that of older subjects (age 51-65 years old) (t = 2.76, p = .007). The subjects with higher anxiety scores reported significantly higher NVR scores than those with lower anxiety scores (t = -2.41, p = .019). Subjects who had experience in motion sickness had significantly higher NVR scores (M = 12.69, SD = 2.60) than those who did not (M = 9.23, SD = 2.86) and the difference was statistically significant (t = 4.98, p <.01). Meanwhile, no significant difference was found between subjects who reported their expectation to have nausea and those who did not (t = 0.08, p = .94). Conclusion: The findings provide valuable information regarding NVR and the individual risk factors among patients with cervical cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Nurses should assess the anxiety level and a history of motion sickness of patients planned for chemotherapy and offer preventive interventions to prevent and control NVR occurrence and its distress