Effectiveness of acupressure on anxiety of children undergoing Anesthesia: A single blind, Sham-controlled trial study

Background and objectives: 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 carried out about the effects of complementary therapies such as acupressure on the preoperative anxiety levels in children throughout the world.Materials and methods: This is a clinical trial study that was conducted in three groups on 144 children aged 5 to 12 years undergoing the tonsillectomy. In this study, the children were assigned to one of three groups of intervention, control and sham. In the intervention group, the acupressure was applied on Yintang point and in the sham group, was applied at 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 Kruskal Wallis, Wilcoxon, ANOVA and Chi-square. The level of significance was P<0.05.Results: The mean total anxiety score of 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 changes in the total anxiety score of children before and after intervention in control group (-3±17.46), intervention (8.42±32.98) and sham (-4.32±24.47).Conclusion: Like other surgical procedures, the tonsillectomy has serious stress for children. The results of this study showed 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.

Effectiveness of acupressure on anxiety of children undergoing Anesthesia: A single blind, Sham-controlled trial study Keywords:

Anxiety , Children , Tonsillectomy , Acupressure.