Methods
cardiac dysrhythmia, Raynaud’s disease, pain, sensory disorders, audiovisual impairments, vasovagal
CARDIAC DYSRHYTHMIA, DISORDERS, SENSORY DISORDERS, BLIND, COLD
This randomized controlled trial was conducted in 2018–2019 using a double-blind four-group design. Participants were 120 hospitalized adult patients with CABG recruited from the cardiac surgery intensive care unit of Shafa hospital, Kerman, Iran. They were selected based on the following selection criteria: an age of 18–75 years, Iranian nationality, full consciousness, hemodynamic stability, sensitivity to cold, no use of tranquilizers or analgesics 1 h before CTR, no cigarette smoking or drug abuse, and no self-report history of Raynaud’s disease, sensory disorders (such as audiovisual impairments), and mental disorders, no previous experience of using TENS before the study. Exclusion criteria were the need for analgesics during the intervention or the development of cardiac dysrhythmia or vasovagal response during CTR. All patients were selected in the morning shift and underwent CABG with an identical surgical procedure performed by an identical surgeon. The size of chest tube for all of them was 14–16 French. All participants and the person who performed pain assessment were blind to the group allocation, but we explained the purpose of the study to the participants and after finishing the procedure they were given an educational pamphlet about TENS and cold therapy.Sample size was calculated to be thirty using the results of a former study [