Journal of

Introduction: Coronary angiography is a common procedure in diagnostic and treatment of cardiac heart disease. After angiography, the patient remains on bed rest for at least a further 6-24 hours in order to reduce the complications at the groin site. Due to this enforced supine position bed rest and immobilization, patients frequently experienced low back pain. The present study aimed to determine the effect of bed rest time and sandbag on the intensity of low back pain after transfemoral coronary angiography.

Methods: In this clinical trial, 228 patients were selected using a simple sampling; they were divided randomly into 3 groups. The patients in the control group for 4 hours with and 6 hours after the removal of sand bag (totaling 10 hours) had complete bed rest. The patients in intervention group 1 for 6 hours with and 2 hours after the removal of sand bag (totaling 8 hours) and in intervention group 2 for 4 hours with and 3 hours after the removal of sand bag (totaling 7 hours) had complete bed rest. In these 3 groups, the intensity of low back pain was measured by pain numerical scale at zero, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and the day after angiography.

Results: None of the patients in the control and experimental groups developed vascular complications and hemodynamic disturbance. Finding of the present study revealed that a significant statistical difference was existed in relation to low back pain for the patients in intervention group 2 (p<0.001).

Conclusion: Based on the finding of this study, early ambulation can be safe for patients undergoing transfemoral coronary angiography without any instance of vascular complications and hemodynamic disturbance.