Cryotherapy as Comfort Measure for Magnesium Sulfate Administration

Preeclampsia is a disorder when hypertension arises in pregnancy, endangering the life of both mother and baby. With no proper management, it may progress to eclampsia where life-threatening seizures and organ failure may occur. As a preventive measure, preeclamptic women are given Magnesium sulfate as muscle relaxant. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of cryotherapy on pain reduction for patient’s receiving intramuscular Magnesium sulfate administration. The researchers’ criteria in choosing the right respondents are the following: conscious and coherent patients in the latent phase of labor diagnosed with severe preeclampsia and are receiving Magnesium sulfate intramuscular therapy for the first time. There were 30 preeclamptic women in VSMMC given with Magnesium sulfate. One group pre-test post-test only design was used in the study to compare the pains scores before and after the post-test was done to determine the effectiveness of cryotherapy. A third datum, pain score without ice pack application, was taken to find out whether which of the contributing factors: a.) developed pain tolerance; b.) intervention applied, is responsible for the change in pain levels during the course of the observations. The results showed that cryotherapy is an effective intervention in decreasing pain experienced during the intramuscular Magnesium sulfate administration.

 

Keywords - Cryotheraphy, magneksium sulfate, experimental design, Philippines.