Study on effect of massage therapy on pain severity in orthopedic patients

Pain as a main social problem has involved millions of people. Usually pharmaceutical methods use for treating pain but they have side effects which make them less effective. Massage is one of the effective ways for reducing pain after surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of massage therapy on pain severity in orthopedic patients.

This is a clinical trial study on 60 arthroscopic knee surgery patients who were hospitalized in men's orthopedic ward of Al-Zahra and Kashani hospitals. A two part questionnaire was used for collecting data. Samples were selected using easy continuity method and then they were randomly divided into two groups. In intervention group, besides routine treatments, patients were massaged by the researcher for 20 minutes each day and pain severity was evaluated before and after the massage. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and SPSS software.

Results showed that there was a meaningful different between mean score of pain severity before and after the massage in intervention group (p < 0.001) but this difference wasn't meaningful in control group (p = 0.32). Also comparing the mean score of pain severity in both groups before any interventions showed that there were no meaningful differences (p = 0.34) but this difference was meaningful after interventions (p = 0.001).

Considering massage as a safe and effective intervention, it could be used as an easy, cheap and executable method for treating pain in all medical health care centers and even at patient's home.