Effectiveness of acupressure on anxiety of children undergoing anesthesia

Tonsillectomy is one of the most commonly used pediatric surgeries with high stress levels for children and their parents. The present study was designed and implemented regarding the fact that limited studies have ever been carried out about the effects of complementary therapies such as acupressure on the preoperative anxiety levels in children throughout the world.

Present study was a randomized clinical trial that was done in three groups with 144 children aged 5-12 years undergoing tonsillectomy. In present study, the children were allocated in three groups: intervention, control and sham. In the intervention group, the acupressure was applied on the Yintang point and in the sham group, was applied at a sham acupoint. No intervention was performed in the control group. Before and after intervention, the pediatric anxiety levels were measured using instruments. The results were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as the Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon tests, chi-square (χ2) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. The significance level was considered p < 0.05.

The total anxiety score in children was (70.39 ± 20.93) in the control group, (67.83 ± 16.78) in the intervention group and (71.40 ± 21.82) in the sham group, not significant difference (p > 0.05). The different in the overall anxiety score among children before intervention compare to after intervention was as following: Control group (-3 ± 17.46), intervention group (8.42 ± 32.98) and sham group (-4.32 ± 24.47).

Like other surgical procedures, the tonsillectomy has serious stress for children. Our study demonstrates that the acupressure has a significant effect on the level of preoperative anxiety in children undergoing surgery. Therefore, nurses can use this technique to reduce the pediatric anxiety.