Studying the effect of abdominal massage on the gastric residual volume in patients hospitalized in intensive care units.

Background: The main problem of hospitalized patients in intensive care units is feeding, and if the patient does not receive the daily caloric intake required to his body, he will have malnutrition and problems related to it. Abdominal massage is a method used to improve digestive function in various studies, but few studies have been conducted in intensive care units, and sometimes, contradictory results have been obtained. Therefore, the present study is conducted with the aim of determining the effect of abdominal massage on the gastric residual volume in patients hospitalized in intensive care units.

Methods: This study was conducted as a clinical trial in Ahwaz, in 2017. Samples were 60 patients hospitalized in intensive care units who were randomly divided into case and control groups. The intervention period for the case group was 3 days and twice daily for 20 min. Measuring the gastric residual volume was investigated before the intervention and 1 hour after the second massage each day. Data were entered into the checklist designed by the researcher and were analyzed using SPSS version 24 and descriptive and inferential tests.

Results: The gastric residual volume on the second and third day after the intervention was less than before the intervention ( value< 0.05), the gastric residual volume before intervention with after intervention in the control group during different days, on each of the 3 days after the intervention, was more than before the intervention ( value< 0.05), and the gastric residual volume after the intervention in different days and the mean of different days in the case group was lower than the control group ( value> 0.05).

Conclusion: Results represent the effect of abdominal massage on reducing the gastric residual volume in patients hospitalized in intensive care units. Therefore, it is suggested that this method can be considered as a caring method in the daily care program for these patients.

Trial Registration: IRCT2017062134641N2, registered 26 July 2017.