Background and Purpose: One of the significant complications of angioplasty is the pain at the catheterization site. These complications will increase the hospitalization duration and hospital costs. The objective of this study is to investigate the combined impact of using sand and ice bags on mitigating pain following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial research, we recruited 60 patient candidates for femoral PCI who were referred to Imam Reza Hospital of Mashhad City, Iran, in 2017. The patients were assigned to the control and intervention groups by simple randomization. The statistical analyst was blind to the study. The arterial sheath was removed 4 hours after coronary intervention. Then, a sandbag was placed on the site in control group subjects for up to 4 hours. The ice and sand bags were placed on the site for 15 minutes in the intervention group. Using a numerical pain measurement tool, the pain intensity was recorded at the beginning of the patient’s admission and 3, 6, and 12 hours after the sheath removal. The obtained data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (mean & SD) and inferential statistics (The Chi-Square, Fisher exact, Mann-Whitney, Friedman, and t-tests). Results: The mean score of pain intensity in the sandbag combined with the ice bag group (1.1±1.0) was significantly lower than the sandbag group (2.4±0.9) at the 3 hours after the sheath removal (P<0.001). The mean pain intensity scores at the 6 hours after the sheath removal were 0.7±0.7 in the sandbag combined with the ice bag group and 1.0±0.8 (P=0.407) in the sandbag group. Also, 12 hours later, the pain difference between groups was not significant (0.2±0.4 in the sandbag combined with the ice bag group and 0.4±0.6 in the sandbag group (P=0.482). Conclusion: Although both interventions reduced the patient’s pain, the group with the combination of ice bag and sandbag tolerated less pain 3 hours after removing the sheath. Thus, this method can be applied as an available, effective, and cost-effective technique in angiography units of hospitals for reducing local pain.

Introduction: Angioplasty is widely used as a selective treatment for acute coronary syndromes. The complications of this procedure often lead to an increase in the length of the patients’ stay and hospital costs. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effect of using sand and ice bags on hematoma and hemorrhage after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods: In this randomized clinical trial, study was completed with participation of 60 patients with femoral angioplasty candidate, referring to Imam Reza hospital in Mashhad, were randomly divided into control and intervention groups. In the control group, a sand bag was placed on the location for up to 4 hours. In the intervention group, the ice bag and the sand bag were used simultaneously for 15 minutes, and then for 45 minutes, with the pressure of the sand bag only. This cycle was repeated four times. Hemorrhage (volume and weight) and hematoma (area and lump) were checked four times. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 22. Results: The rate of hemorrhage after intervention was significantly reduced in the intervention group compared to the control group. Although the incidence of hematoma in the intervention group decreased from control to 20% to 6.7%, but the statistical test was not significant. Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, the simultaneous sand-ice bag application can reduce post-PCI’ hemorrhage (and hematoma rate, though insignificantly) through compression and vasoconstriction.

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