Evaluation of the Effect of Respiratory Relaxation on the Severity of Pain Resulting from the Removal of the Chest Tube After CABG

Introduction: Patients admitted to the intensive care unit express the chest tube removal as one of their worst experiences. In spite of scientific advances, no effective action is taken to reduce the pain due to it. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of respiratory relaxation on the severity of pain resulting from the removal of chest tube after coronary artery bypass graft.  Methods: This single blind randomized trial was performed in 2016 on 80 patients with open heart surgery with only one mediastinal chest tube. Patients were randomly divided into case and control groups. In the case group, relaxation and relaxation breathing exercises were used for 5 minutes before the tube was exhausted. The severity of pain was measured by visual analog scale before, immediately and 15 minutes after the removal of the chest tube. Data analysis was performed using common tests. Results: The results showed that there was no significant difference between the severity of pain in both groups before the removal of the chest tube (P=0.84). It was also found that there was a significant difference between the severity of pain immediately after the discharge of the tube in the case group (P=0.0001), but there was no significant difference between the intensity of pain 15 minutes after the withdrawal of the tubes in the case and control groups (P=0.21). Conclusion: Respiratory relaxation is an effective technique for the pain intensity of postoperative chest tube after open heart surgery. It is recommended to use this method before tubing, due to lack of cost, ease of use and effectiveness.