COMPARATIVE EFFICACY OF THREE TAPING MATERIALS IN POST CAESAREAN PAIN MANAGEMENT IN WOMEN DURING HOSPITALIZATION

S. Bhadauria¹, M. Tomar²

¹Anu My Baby High Risk and Neo Natal Care Centre, Physiotherapy, Vijayawada, India, ²NTRCVSc, Anatomy, Vijayawada, India

Background: The women fitness is always a concern after caesarean section (CS).Most of the women suffer with pain and discomfort for a small span or for long period. The use of taping is reported to be very effective for management of pain and quality of life in patients during hospital stay. Therefore, the study on the suitable and easily available taping material and its efficacy is needed.

Purpose: Accurate assessment of pain severity of post-caesarean section helps to choose the most appropriate approach to minimize the postoperative pain. Literature suggested that the kinesiology taping helps in achieving the comfort but the availability of kinesiology tape is sometime problematic in many hospitals especially in developing or non-developed countries. Therefore, randomized clinical study was planned to compare the effects of three taping materials in pain management, ambulation ease in breast-feeding due to reduction in pain with VAS scale after caesarean section from day zero to day five.

Methods: The assessment of pain was done by VAS scale and comfort in breast feeding in post caesarean women (aged between 20 to 35 years, gestational age from 28 to 39 weeks, body mass index (BMI) 20–30 kg/m2 and history of previous CS to have a previous experience with postoperative pain). The study was carried out from August 2021 to May 2022 in Anu My Baby High risk and neo natal care centre, Vijayawada, A.P. India. The informed consent from patients were taken before treatments.
A total of 230 women were randomly divided in 3 groups viz., treated by Kinesiology tape, micropore tape and leucoplast surgical tape with similar exercises The pain assessment and ease in breast feeding was observed at 0 hrs., 48 hrs. and after 5 days (during hospitalization only) of taping at rectus abdominis muscle, oblique abdominal muscle and above caesarean incision.

Results: The taping was found effective in reducing pain and to improve ease. The best results were obtained in Leukoplast surgical tape (average reduction in pain at 0^th day, 2^nd days & 5^th day 9.16±0.91, 6.68±0.69 & 2.63±0.98 respectively) followed by kinesiology tape (average reduction in pain at 0^th day, 2^nd days & 5^th day: 9.0±0.86, 7.47±0.83 & 3.00±0.97 respectively) and micropore tape (average reduction in pain was at 0^th day, 2^nd days & 5^th day: 9.21±0.84, 7.79±0.89 & 4.47±1.16 respectively). However, the common problem with the surgical tape was excessive adhesion causing local skin reaction while the micropore tap did not have any reaction but it lost its grip when became wet and after 16-18 hrs therefore making repetition compulsory after 16-18 hrs. Overall all three materials were found effective in pain management and ambulation.

Conclusions: The results showed that the taping can be used for pain management in post caesarean women. The efficacy of all three materials was adequate with their specific limitations. The kinesiology tape was satisfying all criteria but other two materials can also be used if KT is not available.

Implications: Other techniques may be developed for pain management in women.

Funding acknowledgements: NA

Keywords:
VAS Scale
Post Caesarean pain management
Taping

Topics:
Pelvic, sexual and reproductive health
Pain & pain management
Musculoskeletal

Did this work require ethics approval? No

Reason: The written informed consent was taken from all patients.