ABSTRACT:
Aim: To assess and compare the effectiveness of dry cold application on pain intensity and bruise among hospitalized patients receiving subcutaneous injection (low molecular weight heparin) and to seek association of pain and bruise score with selected variable. Material and method: A Quasi-Experimental study using non equivalent control group post test only design was used. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 60 hospitalized patients in medical intensive care unit (30 in experimental and 30 in comparison group). Dry cold was applied to the subcutaneous injection site using ice bag for 20 minutes after the administration of low molecular weight heparin and no intervention was given in comparison group. Pain intensity was measured using numeric pain rating scale immediately after dry cold application and bruise size was assessed using bruise assessment scale after 12, 48 and 72 hrs of injection administration. RESULTS: There was a significant difference (p= 0.001) between experimental and comparison group in terms of pain and bruise. The mean pain score in experimental group (0.77) was significantly less as compared to comparison group (5.87). Bruise score of subjects in experimental group was significantly less (p= 0.01) as compared to comparison group in all three readings (at 12, 48 and 72 hrs) and there was significant association of pain and bruise score with few selected variables like duration of subcutaneous injection and previous analgesic taken.. Study concluded that the dry cold application is effective in reducing pain and bruise among hospitalized patients receiving subcutaneous injection of low molecular weight heparin.