[Pain relieving effect of yakson therapy for infants].
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of Yakson therapy as a pain management tool on the physiologic and behavioral responses of infants with a painful heelstick procedure.


METHODS
Infants were randomly assigned to a group that underwent a series of Yakson therapy and a control that received nothing before a heelstick. Heart rate, oxygen saturation, and NIPS were compared between the experimental (n=16) and control (n=16) infants during an undisturbed baseline and after a standard heelstick procedure. Yakson therapy consisted of laying a hand on the back, and caressing the abdomen by hand for 5 minutes.


RESULTS
The pain scores of the Yakson group were lower than the control group. For oxygen saturation, there were statistically significant differences between groups. For heart rate, there were no statistically significant differences between groups.


CONCLUSIONS
This data suggests that Yakson therapy had a pain relief effect in behavior responses and SaO2. Accordingly, Yakson therapy should be used as a nursing intervention for simple pain management for a heel prick.
Park
Eun-Sook
ES
College of Nursing, Korea University, Korea.
Sung
Kyung-Suk
KS
Oh
Won-Oak
WO
Im
Hye-Sang
HS
Kim
Eun-Sook
ES
Kim
Yeon-Ah
YA
Lee
Chun-Hee
CH
D001800:Blood Specimen Collection; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006365:Heel; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D017283:Neonatal Nursing; D010092:Oximetry; D010146:Pain / Q000451:nursing; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011677:Punctures / Q000009:adverse effects; D019124:Therapeutic Touch / Q000379:methods* / Q000451:nursing