The Effect of Breath Exercise Training Given to Patients Undergoing Surgery in the General Surgery Clinic on Postoperative Pain, Anxiety, and Nausea-Vomiting

Today, surgical treatment is one of the areas where technological methods are frequently applied in the treatment of diseases and the recovery process of patients. Problems such as pain, nausea, vomiting, fear and anxiety occur after surgery, and these situations negatively affect the patient's comfort, quality of life, recovery and satisfaction; they also cause the length of hospital stay and the time allocated to nursing care to be extended and the cost to increase. Pain is a frequently seen symptom in the postoperative period. Approximately 86% of patients experience pain to varying degrees during this period. Prolonged postoperative pain paves the way for the development of various physiopathological responses such as immobility, increased oxygen consumption, atelectasis, deep vein thrombosis, tachycardia, hypertension, decreased stomach and intestinal motility, increased blood sugar, urinary retention and delayed wound healing. Anxiety plays an important role in the increase and decrease of pain after surgical intervention. Studies have determined that pain in the preoperative period increases the level of anxiety and that this situation lowers the pain threshold. Effectively managed and controlled postoperative pain; It reduces anxiety levels and facilitates keeping life parameters at an optimal level after surgical intervention.

Postoperative nausea and vomiting are seen in 20-30% of patients after general anesthesia and are the second most common complaint after pain, and this rate increases to 80% in high-risk groups. Despite antiemetic and analgesic drugs, postoperative nausea, vomiting and pain continue to be an important problem for patients today. Although postoperative nausea and vomiting is not a life-threatening complication, it is a condition that makes recovery from anesthesia difficult, causes fluid-electrolyte imbalance, increases the risk of aspiration, causes stress in patients, causes tension in the suture line and prolongs the discharge period. Many different pharmacological approaches have been developed to minimize postoperative nausea, vomiting and pain. However, the side effects of traditional antiemetics and analgesics and the high cost of drugs have increased the interest in the use of non-pharmacological methods.

Breathing exercises can be used as an effective, simple and cost-effective non-pharmacological approach to prevent or reduce the occurrence of postoperative complications. In addition, it has been shown in the literature that it also increases physical function and quality of life. However, patients have difficulty taking deep breaths due to movement restriction and pain in the postoperative period. Therefore, deep breathing exercises need to be performed regularly to support the incision site in order to ensure effective inspiration and expiration in these patients.

Oxygenation of the traumatized tissues must be sufficient for wound healing in the postoperative incisional area. This oxygen requirement is met by effective ventilation. However, after surgery, patients have difficulty in breathing deeply due to reasons such as pain and limitation of movement. Studies have shown that the practice of planned breathing exercises reduces stress in patients in the pre- and post-operative period, provides calming, and positively affects the level of pain and wound healing. In this respect, planned patient education and care to be given to patients before surgery is very effective in preventing complications related to surgical intervention.

One of the basic duties of surgical nurses is to teach and apply deep breathing and coughing exercises to the patient in pre-operative patient education. It is very important to explain the importance of these exercises to the patient and the effects of performing them at regular intervals on the quality of recovery.