Introduction: patients undergoing hemodialysis experience fistula puncture pain an average of 10 times per month. Reduction of these complications is important for adjusting the patients with long-term hemodialysis. This study aimed at investigating the effects of EMLA cream and ice pack on severity of pain induced by vascular needle punctures in hemodialysis patients.
Methods: This was a quasi-experimental design carried out on 40 hemodialysis patients with arteriovenous fistula at Shahid Rahnemoon Hospital., Yazd, Iran, in 2015. In this study, the pain severity was measured in the patients upon insertion of vascular needles using EMLA cream and ice pack with numeric scale of pain severity measurement. The data were analyzed using SPSS16 and repeated measure ANOVA.
Results: Our findings showed that the mean score of pain in three methods of uncontrolled pain method, ice pack method, and EMLA cream method, was 7.45±0.88, 5.38±0.83, and 2.80±0.70, respectively. Reduction in average pain intensity was more obvious with both EMLA cream and ice pack methods compared to the uncontrolled pain method (P < 0.001). Also, the mean of pain reduction was significantly greater with EMLA cream compared to ice pack (P < 0.001)
Conclusion: Both methods of ice pack and EMLA cream were effective in reducing pain, but due to EMLA cream was more effective in decreasing fistula puncture pain, it could be suggested to hemodialysis patients.

Keywords: Hemodialysis, Arteriovenous fistula, EMLA cream, Ice pack, Pain.

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