Efeito agudo da acupuntura, atividade física lúdica e da realidade virtual sobre a dor após cirurgia cardíaca

Abstract

The prescription of physical activity in the postoperative period for patients undergoing thoracotomy for cardiac surgery has great importance for rehabilitation and pain management. However, understanding the benefits of the numerous possibilities of intervention is necessary, therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of playful activity, the use of virtual reality as well as acupuncture to alleviate the pain of postoperative of undergoing cardiothoracic unit cardiac surgery. Therefore, the sample consisted of 27 patients aged 45-65 years undergoing thoracotomy for cardiac surgery, being applied the analog visual scale (VAS) and numerical (EVN) for the analysis of pain mitigation and measurement of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) pre and post intervention. Participants were divided into four groups in the postoperative period: a) Virtual Reality using a unique game that does not need to control the PS4; b) Electrical Acupuncture in mixed current of 4 Hz to 10 Hz; c) ludic activity in the form of basketball adapted to reality and hospital; d) control group that followed the usual hospital procedures. Statistical analysis was performed using measures of central tendency and variance, with the smallest statistical significance 0.05. After the intervention programs of patients and hospital, it has been found that virtual reality and acupuncture satisfactorily improved self reported pain of patients (p <0.05), and post-period for the acupuncture other interventions (p <0.05). With regard to cardiovascular parameters, acupuncture proved more effective (p <0.05), with a reduction in SBP and HR. We conclude that electro-acupuncture is the most effective intervention to mitigate the pain and control the hemodynamic variables in relation to the other sessions, the Virtual Reality is also satisfactory for pain control.