ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND@#Conscious patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) suffer from pain for various reasons, which can affect their recovery process.@*OBJECTIVE@#The present study compared the effects of aromatherapy with Citrus aurantium and lavender essential oils against placebo for reducing pain in conscious intensive care patients.@*DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS@#This study was a parallel randomized placebo-controlled trial. The ICUs of two educational hospitals in Kerman in Southeastern Iran were the study setting. One hundred and fifty conscious intensive care patients were randomly divided into three groups using a stratified block randomization method. Two groups received aromatherapy with essential oils: one with lavender and the other with C. aurantium; these patients received a 30-minute therapy session using their assigned essential oil on the second day of their intensive care stay. The placebo group used 5 drops of normal saline instead of essential oil during their session.@*MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES@#Patient's pain was assessed using a visual analog scale before the aromatherapy intervention, as well as immediately after and one and three hours after intervention.@*RESULTS@#The mean pain score of the lavender group was 40.01 before the aromatherapy intervention and fell to 39.40, 30.60 and 23.68 immediately after the intervention, and at hour one and three post-intervention, respectively. The mean pain score of the C. aurantium group was 45.48 before the intervention and was reduced to 32.34 at three hours after the intervention. The mean pain of the placebo group decreased from 42.80 before the intervention to 35.20 at three hours after the intervention. Pain scores of all groups decreased during the study (P < 0.001). The mean pain of the lavender group was significantly lower than that of the placebo group at three hours after the intervention.@*CONCLUSION@#The results of this study showed that aromatherapy with lavender essential oil reduced pain in conscious ICU patients. Our data could not justify the use of C. aurantium for reducing pain in this population.@*TRIAL REGISTRATION@#No. IRCT20170116031972N9 (https://en.irct.ir/trial/40827).
Subject(s)
Humans , Citrus , Critical Care , Intensive Care Units , Lavandula , Oils, Volatile , Pain/drug therapy , Plant OilsABSTRACT
The pain of the chest and abdominal injuries in patients who undergoing mechanical ventilation is controlled by regional or systemic administration of drugs. We designed this study for comparison of effect of intravenous and epidural injection of fentanyl on pain reduction and hemodynamic status in patients with abdominal and thoracic injuries. In this prospective clinical trial study, we randomly allocate 60 patients aged 16 to 80 years who were undergoing mechanical ventilation due to thoracic or abdominal injuries, to two groups. In B group during first 24 hour of admission pain management was done by epidural infusion of fentanyl and in the next 24 hours, this method was changed to intravenous infusion of fentanyl. In A group, initially method was intravenous and after 24 hours, we changed it to epidural method. We assessed pain score and hemodynamic status at the specific times. In both groups after first 2 hours, pain sore was significantly lower in intravenous method but after 6 hours, pain score was significantly lower in epidural method. Hemodynamic status in epidural method was significantly more stable than IV method. This study showed that for patients who were undergoing mechanical ventilation due to chest or abdominal injuries, intravenous infusion of fentanyl provides more pain relief during first two hours but after six hours epidural method is better than intravenous infusion