Effects of Connective Tissue Massage on Pain After Thoracotomy

Pain can be quite severe after thoracic surgery and effective pain control is highly effective in preventing secretion accumulation, atelectasis, infection and hypoxemia. The objective was evaluate the effect of a connective tissue massage on pain, applied analgesic amounts and length of hospitalization of the patients.The study was conducted at a thoracic surgery department of university hospital in Turkey. Fifty-four patients with operated by the posterolateral thoracotomy method participated.The patients were randomly allocated to 1 of 2 groups: a control group (n27) and the experimental group (n27). Standard medical treatment, care and pulmonary rehabilitation program were applied to both groups. In addition, a total of 5 sessions of connective tissue massage were applied to the experimental group. Pain level of the patients was evaluated at every 24 hours as of the zeroth postoperative day. VAS was used as a one-dimensional scale for pain assessment. Totally applied analgesic amounts and length of hospitalization of the patients were recorded.