Nursing intervention using healing touch in total knee replacement: A randomized controlled study protocol

OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of healing touch (HT) for reducing pain and promoting wound healing in patients undergoing total knee replacement (TKR). METHOD: The experiment will be implemented from December 2020 to December 2021 and was granted through the Research Ethics Committee of Huaihua First People's Hospital (3928/823). 60 patients are included in the study. The recruitment criteria of patients includes: 1. the willingness and ability to finish the anxiety and pain questionnaires; 2. the clinical indication of TKR on the basis of medical history and physical examination; and 3. above the age of 60 years. The exclusionary criteria includes: 1. unable to cooperate with the postoperative evaluation and treatment; 2. revision of TKR; 3. diagnosis of the rheumatoid arthritis; and 4. having surgical complications. The measurement of pain is conducted by the visual analog scale, while the levels of anxiety is measured with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. For all data, they are analyzed through using the software of IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 20 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). RESULTS: Table 1 indicates the comparison of clinical outcomes between the control group and study group. CONCLUSION: HT appears to reduce the postoperative pain and improve patient satisfaction after TKR.