Effect of Cryotherapy during Arteriovenous Fistula Puncture-related Pain among Haemodialysis Patients in SGPGIMS Hospital, Lucknow

Abstract

Pain during areteriovenous fistula (AVF) cannulation remains a common problem in haemodialysis (HD) patients. This study was undertaken to assess the effect of cryotherapy on pain due to arteriovenous fistula puncture in haemodialysis patients, a convenience sample of 30 patients (15 each in experimental and control groups) undergoing haemodialysis by using AVF, was assessed in a randomised control trial. Haemodialysis patients who met the inclusion criteria were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups using flip of coin method. Objective and subjective pain scoring was done on two consecutive days of HD treatment (with cryotherapy for the experimental and without cryotherapy for the control group). The tools used were a questionnaire examining demographic and clinical characteristics, an adult non-verbal pain scale for assessing objective pain, and a numerical rating scale for subjective pain assessment. Descriptive statistics were used as deemed appropriate. Mann Whitney U test, Wilcoxon’s signed rank test and Shapiro Wilk test were used for inferential statistics. We found that the objective and subjective pain scores were found to be significantly reduced within the experimental group with the application of cryotherapy (p=0.001). This study highlights the need for adopting alternative therapies such as cryotherapy for effective pain management in hospital settings.