The Effect of Three Different Local Cold Applications on Pain Severity, Anxiety Level, and Physiological Parameters in Intra-Articular Injections for Knee Osteoarthritis Treatment.

Abstract

Minimizing pain and anxiety associated with intra-articular injection interventions is important for patient satisfaction and comfort. The sample of this quasi-experimental study consisted of 120 patients who received intra-articular knee injections for the first time. Patients were divided into four study groups before injection. The inter-group comparisons of the vital signs and mean pain and anxiety scores obtained immediately after the injection (0th minutes) and after 30 minutes indicated that mean systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and pain scores were lower in the icepack application group, mean pulse rate score was lower in the cold spray group, and mean respiratory rate score was lower in the buzzy device group, with differences being statistically significant (p < .05). We conclude that icepack application is effective in reducing pain severity in intra-articular injections.