Evaluation of the change in pain, dyspnea perception, and pulmonary function values with pain tape application in patients undergoing thoracotomy

Background: We aimed to evaluate the changes in pain, dyspnea perception and respiratory functions by applying pain tape in the postoperative period in patients who underwent thoracotomy. Materials and Methods: 55 patients were included in the prospective, randomized study with local ethics committee approval. The patients were divided into two groups, and on the postoperative 1st day, pain tape was applied to group I patient and placebo tape similar to pain tape was applied to group II patient. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was used for pain assessment, Modified Borg Scale (MBS) for dyspnea assessment, pulmonary function test and six-minute walking test (6 MWT) were used to evaluate pulmonary functions in the preoperative and postoperative periods. Results: There were 29 patients in group I and 26 patients in group II, with mean age of 59.2 ± 10.4 (18-75) years. According to the statistical analysis, no difference was found between the groups in terms of age, gender, height, weight, BMI, 6 MWT, MBS, FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC values (p > 0.05). There was a difference between the groups in terms of VAS values measured on the 3rd postoperative day (4.65 ± 1.79 vs. 6.57 ± 1.74; p > 0.001). In addition, the postoperative complication rate was different in group I compared to group II (17.2% vs. 30.7%; p = 0.003). Conclusion: Pain tape application is a reliable and simple method for pain control in the postoperative period in patients undergoing thoracotomy. It can be applied to patients for pain control in the early period, and in this way, the development of postoperative complications can be prevented.