The Effect of Ginger on Preventing Post-Dural Puncture Headache (PDPH) in Patients Undergoing Cesarean Section

Background: Post-Dural Puncture Headache (PDPH) caused by both physical and psychological problems, as well as mothers’ delayed releases, increases hospitalization costs, delayed and diminished quality of mothers’ breastfeeding and some problems in the mother-baby relationship. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the effect of ginger on preventing PDPH in patients undergoing cesarean section.Methods: This clinical trial was conducted on 160 women undergoing cesarean section with spinal anesthesia, who were eligible to enter the study in the experimental and control groups. In the intervention group, the preventive PDPH treatment by Zintoma capsule was initiated 8 h prior to initiating spinal anesthesia in the planned C-section women. Then, half an hour after the patients’ recovery and transfer to the post-partum ward, one Zintoma capsule (250 mg) was administered to them once every 8 hours (TDS). Zintoma administration was continued until the headache onset. In case of a headache incidence (with the minimum degree of 3), the capsule administration was discontinued and a routine PDPH treatment was followed, after which the patient was excluded from the intervention process. In the control group, no interventions were done to prevent PDPH. Headache incidence and intensity were measured by using VAS pain scores at 6 time points (30, 60, and 90 min plus 3, 6, and 12 h) after the patients’ entrance to the post-partum ward (0-3 cm: without a headache up to a mild headache; 4-7 cm: a moderate headache; and 8-10 cm: a severe headache). The scores of both the intervention and control groups were then recorded individually Results: The findings indicated that the mean scores of PDPH intensity in the experimental and control groups had significant differences, except for the time point of 6 h (12 h after spinal anesthesia) (p<0.05). The trend of changes in pain over time showed that except for the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th times, significant differences existed between the two groups in terms of the mean intensity of PDPH (p<0.05).Conclusion: The use of oral ginger is suggested to prevent PDPH as an effective and non-invasive method against PDPH

Keywords:

Post-Dural Puncture Headache , Ginger , Cesarean section , Prevention