-- Post-surgery patients typically experience a range of physical and psychological discomforts. These include pain, anxiety, tension and stress. In most cases, relief from such discomforts is provided in the form of medications. A new study has just revealed that massage therapy may be an effective alternative for providing relief from these discomforts.
The study, which was published in the journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, was carried out on 177 patients who had undergone abdominal colorectal surgery. It found that a 20-minute massage session was effective for enhancing patient relaxation, and relieving them from pain, anxiety and tension.
Abdominal colorectal surgery is a medical procedure which is normally carried out to repair the lower digestive tract. It is performed on people whose colon, rectum or pelvic floor has been damaged by conditions like diverticulitis, inflammatory bowel disease or cancer.
The aftermath of colorectal surgery is quite frequently distressful for patients due to the incision made during the surgery being often excruciatingly painful. Beyond physical pain, patients are also known to be anxious, tensed up and stressed. The distress level is highest within the first 3 to 5 days after the surgery.
The goal of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of massage as a natural method for providing relief from post colorectal surgery discomfort. The 177 patients selected for this purpose participated in the study during their second and third days following their surgical operation.
The participants in the study (i.e. the patients) were randomly assigned into two groups, the massage group and the control group. The participants in the massage group were subjected to two Swedish massage sessions on the second day as well as the third day after their colorectal surgery.
Each massage session was carried out by a trained therapist who first took five minutes out to chat with each participant. The goal was to find out the specific areas of the body which the participant wanted to be massaged.
Afterwards, the therapist then proceeded to give the participant a 20-minute Swedish massage session. The massage was concentrated around the body regions identified by the participant. After the massage, the participant was urged to take a 20-minute relaxation period. They could listen to soft music, enjoy quiet time with dim lighting or watch a relaxing TV channel.
For the participants in the control group, there was no massage. Instead, they had a social call from the massage therapist whho basically spent 20 minutes chatting with them. After the chat, they were urged to take a 20-minute relaxation period. The relaxation period was the same as that of the massage group.
The researchers were interested in measuring a number of metrics including pain, anxiety, relaxation, tension and satisfaction to find out if massaging had an impact on these factors. For this purpose, two assessments were carried out after each massage session. The first was carried out before the massage session, the second imeadiately afterwards. A similar approach was taken for the control group. They were assessed before and after the social visit.
The nature of the assessment was based on a self-report questionnaire. The participants were asked to rate a number of factors which point towards pain, anxiety, tension, relaxation and satisfaction with quality of care. The rating scale ranged from 0 to 10, zero representing the minimum and 10 represented the maximum.
Each participant’s responses before the sessions (i.e. massage or social call) were compared with the responses afterwards. This was intended to determine whether there was a similarity or difference in the responses.
Afterwards, the responses of all the participants in each of the groups were aggregated. The aggregated responses of the two groups were then compared in order to gage any similarities or differences between the two groups.
On average, the participants in the massage group reported feeling significantly less pain, anxiety and tension after the massage sessions. They also reported feeling high levels of relaxation.
The participants in the control group reported a minimum reduction in their levels of pain, anxiety and tension after the social calls. Still they reported having experienced some levels of relaxation, although it was significantly lower than the one experienced by members of the massage group.
The researchers concluded that Swedish massage can be effective for reducing post-surgery pain, anxiety and tension among patients and contribute towards enhancing the patient’s feeling of relaxation. Their results were published in the August edition of the journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice.
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