Evaluation of feasibility and safety of changing body position after transfemoral angiography: A randomized clinical trial

•Changing patients' position after transfemoral coronary angiography decrease the incidence of back and groin pain and urinary retention.•Vascular complications do not increase by changing patient's position during bed rest after transfemoral coronary angiography.•Position change after transfemoral angiography by cardiology nurses increase patient's comfort.

BackgroundConsidering the growing number of patients who suffer from cardiovascular and coronary artery disease and the significant importance of angiography in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease, this study investigated the effects of position change on the acute complications of coronary angiography.MethodsThis study was a randomized clinical trial. Sixty patients undergoing coronary angiography, which was performed by a single operator were selected by convenience sampling method and were assigned to intervention or control groups by randomized block design (30 cases in each group). Intervention group patients' position was changed according to schedule, whereas patients in the control group remained in the supine position in complete bed rest. At the entrance hours, 3, 6, 8, and 24 hours after the angiography, patients in both groups were evaluated in terms of vascular complications, urinary retention, low back pain, groin pain, and comfort. Data were analyzed by repeated measures, Friedman, Mann–Whitney, chi-square, independent t-test, and Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests with SPSS-22.ResultsThe two groups did not show any significant difference in terms of demographic, clinical, and preinterventional catheterization characteristics (P > 0.05). There was no significant difference with regard to vascular complications including hematoma (P = 0.149), bleeding (P > 0.01), bruise (P = 0.081), and thrombosis in the two groups of patients during 5 consecutive reviews. However, there was a significant statistical difference regarding low back pain (P < 0.001), groin pain (P < 0.001), urinary retention (P = 0.02), and comfort (P < 0.001).ConclusionsThe results of this study showed that changing the positions of patients after angiography based on the provided program created no change in the incidence of vascular complications (hematoma, bleeding, thrombosis, and bruise) but resulted in reduced severity of back pain, groin pain, urinary retention, and increased patients' comfort.