Effects of aroma therapy and music intervention on pain and anxious for breast cancer patients in the perioperative period / 中南大学学报(医学版)

To investigate the effect of the aroma therapy and music intervention on anxious and pain for the breast cancer patients in the perioperative period and the potential mechanisms.
 Methods: A total of 100 breast cancer patients who received surgical treatment in the comprehensive hospitals of Hunan province were recruited for this study. Patients were assigned randomly into a control group, an aroma therapy group, a music intervention group, and a joint-therapy group (n=25 per group). The patients in the control group received regular post-surgical nursery, while the patients from other groups received aroma therapy, music intervention, or both in addition to the regular nursery. The scale of anxiety and pain were measured. The measurements were carried at three time points, namely 30 min before the surgery (T1), 30 min after the recovery period of anesthesia (T2), and 4 hours after the removal of anesthesia tubing (T3). Repeated ANOVA was used to perform statistic analysis.
 Results: The scale of pain was significantly increased at the post-operation (T2, T3) compared to pre-surgery (T1). The therapeutic group showed significant decrease in pain at post-operation (T3) comparing with the control group (P<0.05). The scale of anxiety was the highest at pre-surgery (T1). During anaesthesia recovery, the anxiety of patients at post-operation T2 and T3 in the therapeutic groups significantly decreased compared with the control group (P<0.05).
 Conclusion: Both the aroma therapy and the music therapy can decrease the stress-responsive anxiety and pain for the breast cancer patients in the perioperative period.

Clinical studies on patient-controlled intravenous analgesia for postoperative pain relief in breast cancer patients with radical mastectomy / 中国医师杂志

Objective To investigate the analgesic effect and adverse reactions of patient-controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA) in breast cancer patients with radical mastectomy.Methods A total of 210 breast cancer patients who underwent radical mastectomy was randomly divided into two groups,experimental (group A) and control (group B) groups (n =105 cases per group).Patients in group A was used PCIA for 48 hours analgesia,while group B weas applied routine intramuscular injections of pethidine.Visual analogue score (VAS) at 4,8,12,24,and 48 hours after operation were recorded.Pulse,respiration,and blood pressure were monitored and side effects e.g.existed skin itching,nausea,vomiting,and respiratory repression were observed.Results The VAS of group A patients on 4,8,12,24,and 48 hours were2.02 ± 1.47,1.73 ± 1.38,1.68 ± 0.91,1.44 ± 0.65,and 1.21 ± 0.61,respectively;and the VAS of group B patients were 6.95 ± 1.96,6.42 ± 1.57,5.63 ± 1.66,4.99 ± 1.62,and 3.72 ± 1.46,respectively.The VAS was significantly lower in group A patients than in group B (P ＜ 0.05).The incidence of skin itching,nausea,vomiting,and respiratory repression was also distinctly decreased in group A than in group B (P ＜0.05).The overall satisfaction of patients in group A (96.2％) was remarkably higher than in group B (67.6％) (P ＜0.01).Conclusions Patient-controlled intravenous analgesia pump can more effectively alleviate the degree of pain,reduce the incidence of skin itching,nausea,vomiting and respiratory repression,improve the satisfactory degree for analgesia in breast cancer patients with radical mastectomy compared to traditional intramuscular way.