ABSTRACT
This study evaluated the effects of inhalation of Lavender essential oil on vital signs in open heart surgery ICU. The main complaint of patients after open-heart surgery is dysrhythmia, tachycardia, and hypertension due to stress and pain. Due to the side effects of chemical drugs, such as opioids, use of non-invasive methods such as aromatherapy for relieving stress and pain parallel to chemical agents could be an important way to decrease the dose and side effects of analgesics. In a multicenter, single-blind trial, 40 patients who had open-heart surgery were recruited. Inclusion criteria were full consciousness, lack of hemorrhage, heart rate >60 beats/min, systolic blood pressure > 100 mmHg, and diastolic blood pressure > 60 mmHg, not using beta blockers in the operating room or ICU, no history of addiction to opioids or use of analgesics in regular, spontaneous breathing ability and not receiving synthetic opioids within 2 h before extubation. Ten minutes after extubation, the patients> vital signs [including BP, HR, Central Venous Pressure [CVP], SPO2, and RR] were measured. Then, a cotton swab, which was impregnated with 2 drops of Lavender essential oil 2%, was placed in patients' oxygen mask and patients breathed for 10 min. Thirty minutes after aromatherapy, the vital signs were measured again. Main objective of this study was the change in vital sign before and after aromatherapy. Statistical significance was accepted for P < 0.05. There was a significant difference in systolic blood pressure [p 0.001 >], diastolic blood pressure [p = 0.001], and heart rate [p = 0.03] before and after the intervention using paired t-test. Although, the results did not show any significant difference in respiratory rate [p = 0.1], SpO2 [p = 0.5] and CVP [p = 0.2] before and after inhaling Lavender essential oil. Therefore, the aromatherapy could effectively reduce blood pressure and heart rate in patients admitted to the open heart surgery ICU and can be used as an independent nursing intervention in stabilizing mentioned vital signs. The limitations of our study were sample size and lack of control group. Randomized clinical trials with larger sample size are recommended
ABSTRACT
This study evaluated the effects of inhalation of Lavender essential oil on the pain of open-heart surgery. The main complaint of patients after open-heart surgery is chest pain. Due to the side effects of opioids, it is important to use a non-invasive way to effectively relieve pain including aromatherapy with analgesics. This study was a clinical single-blind trial and was conducted on 40 patients who had open-heart surgery in the cardiac ICU of 2 Hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, 2012. Criteria included: full consciousness, spontaneous breathing ability and not using synthetic opioids within 2 hours before extubation. After extubation, the patients were asked to mark the intensity of their pain using the visual analogue scale. Then, a cotton swab which was impregnated with 2 drops of lavender essential oil 2% was placed in their oxygen mask, and they got breath for 10 minutes. 30 minutes after aromatherapy, they were asked to re-mark their pain intensity. The level of patient's pain before and after aroma therapy were compared. The pain mean level before and after inhaling lavender essential oil was 5.60 [SD = 2.262] and 4.98 [SD = 2.293], respectively [p-value>0.05]. Therefore, there is no significant difference and the result of study proves that lavender essential oil inhalation has no effect on reducing the pain of open-heart surgery