The Comparison of the Effect of Music and Rhythmic Breathing Techniques on Pain Severity of Intravenous Cannulation during Blood Transfusion

Introduction: The pain produced by intravenous (IV) cannulation is the most important incident associated with invasive ways experienced by every young patient. However, there are some techniques that can be used to reduce the severity of the pain. Therefore, this study examines the effects of two methods of relaxation and distraction techniques- Music and Rhythmic Berating on the pain reduction during blood transfusion.

Materials and Methods: This clinical trial included 36thalassemic patients aged 6–12 years. The sample was collected through census. The sample were all in the same condition-they were all conscious, able to deal with psychological needs with no other disease and need to take any analgesic. Data were collected using a questionnaire including demographic section and two standardized pain scales-self reporting scale (OUCHER), and behavioral scale (CHEOPS). Pain severity was measured in three intervals for each patient – before using any methods, after using breathing techniques and then after using the music technique. In this way, each patient was measured against himself. The collected data were then analyzed using descriptive and analytic statistics.

Results: Findings of the study revealed a reduction in the severity of pain through rhythmic breathing technique (p=0.0001) and music technique (p=0.0001) with latter being the more effective (p=0.0001) since the headphones were requested by the patients even after the study. 

Conclusion: Based on the result of the study, the two methods of music and rhythmic breathing technique are recommended when dealing with younger patients in all the sections. These methods may also be implemented with outpatients to prevent the negative effects of sever pains as they provide us with – cost, yet effective ways of pain reduction in terms of implementation and education.