Effect of foot reflexology on post operative pain among patients with sternotomy at selected hospital, coimbatore

Foot reflexology is effective in reducing post operative pain among patients with sternotomy. The aim of the study was to identify the effect of foot reflexology on postoperative pain among patients with sternotomy at selected hospital, Coimbatore. Quasi experimental one group pretest posttest design was adopted in this study. 30 patients were selected by using purposive sampling technique. The demographic profile was collected from the patients. Pre-test was done to assess the postoperative pain, by using numerical rating scale. Foot reflexology was given for 20 minutes twice a day when pain score >3 on numerical rating scale. Post test was done to reassess the postoperative pain, by using numerical rating scale after
5 minutes of intervention. It was identified that the post-test mean level of pain score among patients in the experimental and control group was 3.2 and 4.9 respectively with a mean difference of 1.7. Standard deviation of the experimental and control group was 0.74 and 0.65 respectively. The calculated ‘t’ value of 8 was greater than the table value at 0.05 level of significance. Hence, it was concluded that foot reflexology is an effective intervention to reduce postoperative pain among patients with sternotomy.