ABSTRACT
Objective To describe the characteristics of the symptoms of hospitalized patients with liver cirrhosis and to provide guidelines for clinical symptom management,alleviating the symptom distress of patients.Methods By convenient sampling,125 patients with liver cirrhosis were recruited into this study.The Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS) combined with self-designed entries were used to measure the characteristics of symptom experience in the subjects.Results Patients with liver cirrhosis experienced a number of symptoms including fatigue,abdominal distension,pain,drowsiness,loss of weight,loss of appetite,poor sleep,feeling sad,dry mouth,anxiety.The incidences of 19 symptoms were higher than 50％.Symptoms occurred frequently and constantly ranged from 0.8％ to 44.0％,the symptoms occurred with moderate to severe ranged from 1.6％ to 61.6％,and symptom distress was from 0 to 22.4％.The score of PSYCH subscale,PHYS subscale,and the Global Distress Index was (1.02±0.51),(1.03±0.36) and (1.13±0.41) respectively.The total score of MSAS was (0.80±0.29),self-designed entry was (1.00±0.55).Conclusions Hospitalized patients with liver cirrhosis suffer from an array of symptoms,common symptoms in patients with liver cirrhosis in hospital,the degree of symptom in frequency,severity and distress are differcnt.Patients' overall symptoms level is relatively low,but the degree of psychological dis-tress is higher.Medical staffs must strengthen the psychological nursing intervention for patients,using multi-dimensional instrument to do systematic assessment,making sure effective symptom management.