Effect of coolant spray on rib fracture pain of geriatric blunt thoracic trauma patients: a randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of cryotherapy in elderly patients with rib fractures due to blunt thoracic trauma. METHODS: In this prospective randomized controlled study, geriatric patients were assigned to groups to receive either coolant spray (n=51) or placebo spray (n=50). The visual analog scale scores of all patients were recorded before starting spray application (V0), as well as at 10th (V1), 20th (V2), 30th (V3), 60th (V4), 120th (V5), and 360th (V6) minute. The mean decreases in the visual analog scale scores were calculated. RESULTS: The differences between V0 and V1, V0 and V2, V0 and V3, and V0 and V4 mean visual analog scale scores measured in the coolant spray group were found to be significantly higher (p<0.001). In V1, V2, V3, and V4 measurements, the incidence of “clinical effectiveness” in the coolant spray group was significantly higher than in the placebo group (p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Coolant spray therapy can be used as a component of multimodal therapy to provide adequate analgesia due to rib fractures in geriatric patients.