Box breathing before chest tube removal after open-heart surgery

Is this trial a fit for you?

A plain-English reading of the study's rules. Only the study team can confirm whether you qualify.

What this trial studies

This randomized, two-arm trial assigns 86 adults who have undergone open-heart surgery to either box breathing before chest tube removal plus routine care or routine care alone. The intervention uses a 4-4-4-4 breathing pattern for about five minutes with guidance immediately before chest tube removal. Outcomes include pain, anxiety, and dyspnea, as well as hemodynamic parameters, measured before and after the procedure. The study aims to determine if this simple, nonpharmacological technique can improve comfort during a common post-surgical step.

Why it matters

Who can join: the full rules

Inclusion Criteria:

* Patients who have undergone open-heart surgery and have a chest tube
* Aged 18 years or older
* Willing to participate in the study and providing written informed consent
* Conscious, oriented, and cooperative
* Able to read and understand Turkish
* Clinically and hemodynamically stable
* Having no more than three chest tubes (up to two mediastinal and one thoracic chest tube)
* No diagnosed psychiatric disorder
* Not receiving psychiatric medications and/or local neuromuscular blocking agents

Exclusion Criteria:

* Patients who have not undergone open-heart surgery
* Unconscious, disoriented, or uncooperative patients
* Unable to read and understand Turkish
* Intubated patients
* Receiving additional analgesic medication other than routine analgesia
* Receiving local anesthesia at the chest tube insertion site
* Having four chest tubes (two mediastinal and two thoracic)
* Unwilling to participate in the study
* Having a diagnosed psychiatric disorder or mental health condition

Where it's running

• Turkey, Mersin University Hospital
  Yenişehir, Mersin, Turkey (Türkiye) Recruiting

Study contacts

• Principal investigator: Tuğba ÇAM YANIK — Mersin University
• Study coordinator: Tuğba ÇAM YANIK, PHD
• Email: tugbacam@mersin.edu.tr
• Phone: 05067703216

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Other studies for the same condition or treatment. Recruiting studies are listed first.

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How to take part

1. Review the eligibility criteria above with your treating physician.
2. Check the official listing on ClinicalTrials.gov for the latest contact details and recruitment status.
3. Contact the study coordinator or principal investigator to ask for pre-screening. Pre-screening is free and never obligates you to enroll.