The Impact of Cold Therapy on the Pain and Hematoma on the site of Injection of Enoxaparin

Medical Surgical in Nursing

Background: Heparin and low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) are anticoagulant medication. Subcutaneous heparin preparation might cause side effects such as pain, heamatoma, bruising, thrombocytopenia, hematouria, and melena. All these problems will disturb the patient and rejecting the medication. Aim: to examine the impact of cold therapy on the pain and haematoma on the site of injection of Enoxaparin. Design: A quantitative experimental design was used in this research. Sitting: The study was conducted in a University hospital in Saudi Arabia.The patients were randomly selected from Surgical Unit, Coronary Care Unit and Intensive Care Unit.Material and Method: The total number of participants randomly selected was 30 patients and they were divided into two groups, experimental and control groups with 15 participants in each group. The control group received the ordinary routine care for subcutaneous injection of Enoxaparin. On the other hand, the experimental group received a cryotherapy treatment before and after administration of Enoxaparin subcutaneously for 5 minutes, and the pain was measured immediately, but the heamatoma was measured after 48 to 72 hours. Results: Mean (±SD) pain score in patients with cold therapy was 0.2 ±0.4 while without cold therapy was 2.2 ± 0.41. Mean pain was significantly high in cases of without cold therapy (p < 0.0001). Regarding presence of hematoma, there was significant association with cold therapy and presence of hematoma (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: It can be conclude from this study that the cold application can reduce the pain intensity and occurrence of hematoma in patient who receives Enoxaprain injection.

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