A Quasi-Experimental Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Cryotherapy on Pain during Arteriovenous Fistula Puncturing among Hemodialysis Patients in Dialysis Unit of Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi

Introduction: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the most devastating medical, social and economic problems for patients and their families in our country. Patients undergoing hemodialysis are repeatedly exposed to pain from approximately 300 punctures per year. Therefore, pain assessment and management are considered as the nursing priority and one of the important aspects of clinical nursing and one of the therapies to reduce pain is cryotherapy. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of cryotherapy on pain during arteriovenous fistula puncturing among hemodialysis patients in the dialysis unit of Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi. Methods: The research approach adopted was experimental research approach using quasi-experimental research design. The independent variable of the study was cryotherapy and the dependent variable was pain during AV fistula puncture. The present study was conducted in the dialysis unit of Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi. The sample consisted of patients with CKD receiving hemodialysis through AV fistula on their arm. The selection of the sample was done by non-probability purposive sampling technique followed by random assignment of 60 subjects to experimental and control groups. Three tools were utilized to collect the data. Results: Results revealed that the mean pain score in experimental and control groups were 7.7 and 7.8 respectively, but in experimental group the mean pain score continued to decrease, which shows reduction of pain in experimental group as evident from mean pain scores of 7.7 and 2.5 on 1st and 7th day respectively. The mean pain score in control group does not show any major changes in score, indicating no significant decrease in pain score. Conclusion: It was concluded that cryotherapy was able to reduce the intensity of pain due to AV fistula puncture in hemodialysis patients. It can be used as a non-pharmacological intervention and is a simple and inexpensive therapy.