Care of abdominal skin in ankylosing spondylitis patients undergoing corrective spinal surgery

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of a new method of abdominal skin care on patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) undergoing orthopedic surgery. A total of 90 patients with AS and thoracolumbar kyphosis undergoing orthopedic surgery were randomly divided into two groups. Patients in the control group received routine care while those in experimental group received the following new treatment regimen: i) Vaseline cream was applied to the abdominal skin for 3-5 min every 6 h; ii) preoperative stretch exercises were encouraged and iii) 24 h after surgery, the patient was placed in a lateral decubitus position. The difference in abdominal pain levels and the size of tension blisters was the compared between the two groups. There was no difference in age, gender, disease course and kyphosis angle between two groups (P>0.05). Compared with the patients in the control group, those in test group experienced milder pain when evaluated by visual analogue score at 6, 18 and 30 h after surgery (3.6±1.2 vs. 4.5±1.8; 4.4±2.3 vs. 6.1±2.7; 4.1±2.1 vs. 4.1±2.1, P<0.05). Moreover, tension vesicles in the abdominal skin were significantly smaller in the treatment group than the control group (P<0.05). Optimal nursing may be the key to the reduction of the level of pain and occurrence of tension vacuoles in the abdominal skin.