“A study to assess the effectiveness ofice pack (gel pack) on arteriovenous fistula puncture-related pain in patients undergoing hemodialysis”

Hemodialysis (HD) is the most frequently used RRT with the arteriovenous fistula (AVF) being the gold standard for vascular access in HD patients.

To assess the effectiveness of ice pack on Arteriovenous fistula puncture related pain in patients undergoing hemodialysis in selected hospital of Chandigarh.

Purposive sampling technique was used to select the study subjects. A sample of 45 patients who were undergoing hemodialysis by using AVF, was assessed. Hemodialysis patients who met the inclusion criteria, were assigned to the group. Objective and subjective pain scoring was done (with ice pack application for the post intervention group and without ice pack application for the pre intervention). The tools used was a structured questionnaire enquiring examining demographic and clinical characteristics, an observation checklist for assessing objective pain behavior (OBC), and a numerical rating scale (NRS) for subjective pain assessment.

The mean score of subjective pain of the subjects regarding arteriovenous fistula puncture-related pain in pre-intervention group was 4.76 with standard deviation 1.94. According to subjective pain assessment, after intervention the mean pain score was reduced from 4.76 to 0.53. Similarly, in case of objective pain assessment, after intervention the mean pain score was reduced from 22.40 to 18.24 (moderate to mild pain). The paired ‘t’ test value 16.752 & 10.306 of subjective pain assessment & objective pain assessment was found to be statistically highly significant at.000 level.