Author/Authors :
Afrasiabifar Ardashir نويسنده Faculty Member of Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Hazrat-e-Zeinab Nursing and Midwifery College , Hosseini Nazafarin نويسنده Department of Nursing, Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Yasuj, Iran. Hosseini Nazafarin , Mehri Zahra نويسنده School of Nursing and Midwifery, Yasuj University of Medical Sciences (YUMS), Yasuj, IR Iran
Abstract :
Background While the application of anti-pruritus medications may
be useful for hemodialysis (HD) patients, they are at risk of drug
toxicity because of their renal inability to eliminate drug metabolites.
Objectives To examine the effect of the topical application of sweet
almond oil on reducing uremic pruritus in HD patients. Methods This
study is a randomized clinical trial research. The study population
consisted of patients referred in 2013 to the HD ward of Shahid Beheshti
hospital, which is affiliated with Yasuj University of Medical Sciences,
Iran. From a total of 60 patients, 42 that met the inclusion criteria
were selected using a nonrandom sampling method; they were allocated to
two groups through a random-allocation method. Sweet almond oil (with a
traditional medicine certification and a registration number for the
production license) was topically applied on the pruritus location(s) in
the intervention group once daily over two weeks. The data were
collected using a pruritic score questionnaire at one week and two weeks
post-intervention. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics,
such as central tendency and dispersion indices, as well as statistical
tests, including repeated measures ANOVA with a P-value significantly
less than 0.05 and a confidence interval of 95%. Results
Pre-intervention, there was no significant difference in the mean scores
for the severity of pruritus between the test and control groups, but
significant differences were observed between the two groups (P <
0.05) at one week and two weeks post-intervention. The result of
repeated measures ANOVA for within group comparison shows a significant
difference in the mean of pruritus severity pre-intervention (19.63 ±
11.67), one week post-intervention (12.22 ± 11.33), and two weeks
post-intervention (7.27 ± 5.74) (P < 0.05) in the test group.
Conclusions In this study, topical application of sweet almond oil,
which was not followed by any specific complications, was able to
significantly reduce the uremic pruritus in hemodialysis patients;
however, these findings require further studies.
