The effect of early change of skin graft dressing on pain and anxiety among burn patients: a two-group randomized controlled clinical trial

Burn is one of the injuries causing enormous pain among the patients, and the treatment procedure poses great anxiety. This study was designed to determine the effect of early change of skin graft on the pain and anxiety of the patients. Materials and methods: This clinical trial study was accomplished on 64 burn patients at Burn Center of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences in 2018. Convenience sampling was used to select the participants who were then randomly assigned into intervention and control groups. In the intervention group, the graft and donor site dressing was changed one day (early change) after the surgery, while it was done after three days for the control group, both in the same way. The researchers assessed the burn pain anxiety of the patients with BSPAS (Burn Specific Pain Anxiety Scale) and the pain intensity with VAS (Visual Analogue Scale). The data were fed into SPSS 21, and then Chi-square and independent t-test were calculated. Results: The average ages of the patients in the intervention and control groups were respectively 40.4±14.3 and 36.8±13.8. The percentage of burn was 12.1 in the intervention groups and 14.5 in the control group. Statistical analysis using Chi-Square revealed no significant differences between the two groups in the contextual variables (P>0.05). Pain intensity was 4±1.8 in the intervention group and it was 6±1.9 in the control group showing a moderate pain in the former group and severe pain in the control group (P<0.001). Furthermore, it was found that the anxiety level in the control group (46.8±11.2) was significantly greater than that of the intervention group (33.6±11.3) (P<0.001). Conclusion: Given that early change of skin graft and donor dressing has a positive effect on decreasing the amount of pain and anxiety, it is recommended to change the dressing in 24 hours after the surgery.