Journal of Advances in Medicine and Medical Research

Background: Peripheral venous catheters (PVCs) are frequently used for vascular access cannulation, which is thought to be the most frequent invasive treatment carried out on hospitalized patients. Thrombophlebitis is considered a side effect of chemotherapy due to the drug's chemical actions on the vein wall which  lead to pain, inflammation,  hematoma, thrombosis and embolism . Therefore, in order to find ways to reduce this complication,  the purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of proximal massage versus palm fisting exercise on reducing the risk of thrombophlebitis among IV cannulated patients receiving chemotherapy in selected hospital in Mangalore

Methods: Seventy-five chemotherapy  patients were selected according to inclusion criteria  and assigned randomly to group I (n=25) and group II (n= 25) and group III (n= 25) using coin flip method . The researcher provided massage on the proximal area for group I and group II patients performed palm fisting exercise under the supervision of researcher by squeezing the soft ball where as group III received only routine care. The level of  thrombophlebitis was assessed  in Group I, Group II and Group III using VIP scale after 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours of cannulation. 

Results: The study findings revealed that on  day 3  in the Group I,  most  (88%)  of the samples were with Grade 0 level of thrombophlebitis. While in the, Group II 32% of the samples had Grade 0 level of thrombophlebitis where as in   Group III only 16%   of the samples had Grade 0  level of thrombophlebitis. Differences in thrombophlebitis scores were statistically significant (P<0.001).  

Conclusion: Proximal massage and palm fisting exercises are cost-effective, safe, complementary, non - pharmacological intervention which can be performed by nursing personnel.