Effect of changing the duration of keeping sandbag over catheter insertion site on the coronary angiography acute complications: A controlled clinical trial

Transfemoral coronary angiography may cause acute and chronic complications. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of changing the duration of keeping sandbag over the catheter insertion site on the acute complications of coronary angiography. This quasiexperimental study was conducted on 60 patients undergoing transfemoral coronary angiography. Participants were selected using convenience sampling and were randomly assigned to intervention (n = 30) or control group (n = 30). In the intervention group, the sandbag over the insertion site of catheter was taken off at the third hour, whereas in the control group, based on the routine care, sandbag was taken off at the sixth hour after the angiography. At the entrance hours, 3, 6, 8, and 24 hours after the angiography, the patients in both groups were evaluated in terms of groin pain, low back pain, urinary retention, discomfort, and vascular complications. Data were analyzed by repeated measures, Mann-Whitney, Friedman, independent t-test, chi-square, and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests. The two groups showed no significant difference in terms of demographic, clinical, and preinterventional catheterization characteristics (P > .05). Patients in both groups were examined at five time points in terms of groin pain (P = .000), back pain (P = .000), urinary retention (P = .02), and comfort (P = .001) which were significantly different but with regard to vascular complications including hematoma (P = .113), bleeding (P = .32), and bruise (P = .134) were not significantly different. The results of this study showed that removing the patients' sandbag, who are under postangiography cares at the third hour, did not increase the incidence of vascular complications, whereas it decreased patients' back pain, groin pain, and urinary retention and promotes their comfort.