American Journal of Advances in Nursing Research

EFFECT OF EXERCISES ON EARLY REMOVAL OF SURGICAL DRAINS AMONG POST MASTECTOMY PATIENTS

Divya Thomas* and Simple Rajagopal

divyaliza@gmail.com

Amount of drainage, Early discharge, Post mastectomy exercises.

Mastectomy is the surgical procedure to treat breast cancer. Shortening the hospital stay has been shown to be an effective way of reducing the cost of surgery for breast cancer and axillary lymph drainage tubes are the main obstacle in achieving it, because the patients with suction drains in situ are managed in the hospital. Aim: The present study is aimed to assess the effect of post mastectomy exercises for the early removal of surgical drains among post mastectomy patients. Objectives of the study were to assess the amount and characteristics of surgical drainage in experimental and Control groups as measured by observation check list, to identify the effectiveness of post mastectomy exercises on early removal of surgical drains among patients who have undergone mastectomy in experimental group in terms of reduction in the amount of drainage and to determine the association between the effectiveness of exercises in post mastectomy patients with selected demographic variables. Methodology: The quantitative approach with pretest posttest control group design was selected for this study. The study samples consisted of 60 post mastectomy patients, with 30 in experimental group and 30 in control group. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample from the selected hospital. Results: The t value obtained is 32.101 at 0.05 levels significant in the experimental group and in the control group the value was 24.2. The total difference in pre test score and post test score mean value for experimental group (17) is greater than the pre and post test difference mean value for control group (9.033). So the mean additional difference in experimental group is 7.9. So it is inferred that after the experiment the experimental groups have a reduction in the drain and were removed surgical drainage early compare to control group.