The Effect of Expressive Touch and Music on Pain, Vital Signs, and Brain Oxygenation: Mixed-Method Study with Clinical Trial.

Purpose: Subjective methods should be used to evaluate pain. It is important to know how pain affects vital signs and brain oxygenation. This study aimed to determine the effects of expressive touch and music applied after lumbar disc herniation surgery on pain, vital signs, and brain oxygenation.

Design: This was a convergent, parallel, mixed-methods study utilizing randomized controlled trials and semi-structured qualitative interviews.

Methods: With power analysis, 132 (44: expressive touch, 44: music, 44: control) patients were included in the study. Thirty-two patients were included in the qualitative research sample. Expressive touch and music interventions were repeated 3 times. Pain, vital signs, and brain oxygenation values were recorded before and after the interventions. Qualitative data were collected after the interventions.

Results: It was determined that expressive touch and music significantly decreased the patients' pain levels compared to the control group (X²: 67.118), (p < .001). It was found that expressive touch and music created a significant difference in respiration (X²: 15.289), blood pressure (X²: 8.754-8.706), saturation (X²: 47.953), and brain oxygenation (X²: 31.473-37.110), (p < .001). Music was found to be more effective than expressive touch on pain and brain oxygenation. The interventions relaxed and distracted the patients.

Conclusions: It was found that expressive touch and music were effective in reducing pain level, keeping vital signs within physiological limits, and increasing brain oxygenation. Further studies are needed to examine the effects of other methods used in postoperative pain management on brain oxygenation.