Cutaneous Stimulation: its Effect on pain Relieving among Hemodialysis Patients

Pain management in the purview of all health professionals especially nurses and it is an important component of comprehensive nursing care. Nursing effort should be made to assess and manage acute pain inflicted by insertion of needle in arteriovenous fistula among hemodialysis patients. Aim: This study was carried out to examine the effect of cutaneous stimulation on pain relieving at arteriovenous fistula puncture site among hemodialysis patients. Setting: The study was carried out at Hemodialysis units in Menoufia University hospital and Shebin El- Kom teaching hospital. Sample: A random sample of forty hemodialysis patients in Shebein El- Kom Teaching hospital and twelve hemodialysis patients in Menoufia University hospital who had arteriovenous fistula. Tools: three tools were utilized to collect the data. Tool I : An interviewing questionnaire to assess sociodemographic and medical data. Tool II : Abbey pain scale to assess objective pain behaviour. Tool III : 0-10 numeric pain scale to assess subjective pain. Results: reveled that 55.8% of studied sample had moderate objective pain score before applying cutaneous stimulation, while after the application 67.3% of them had mild objective pain during second visit and 65.4% had no pain during the third visit. Also the subjective pain among the studied sample was either moderate or severe before applying cutaneous stimulation, while after application, 46.2% of them had mild subjective pain during second visit and 51.9% had no pain during the third visit. Conclusions: Cutaneous stimulation is effective in reducing arteriovenous fistula puncture objective and subjective pain scores among hemodialysis patients. Recommendations: Cutaneous stimulation should be carried out routinely for managing arteriovenous fistula puncture related pain among hemodialysis patients. Keywords: Effect, Cutaneous stimulation, pain and Hemodialysis.