Abstract

Background: Fatigue is one of the most common annoying symptoms reported by dialyzed patients, and lower the feeling of being well in dialysis patients and have various effects on their physical, emotional and cognitive aspects. Objectives: In this study, the effect of sole and palm reflexology on fatigue severity in patients treated with hemodialysis was done. Materials and Methods: This study is a clinical trial wherein the fatigue of 52 patients was compared before the end of the third and fifth week and after intervention in two groups of hand reflexology and sole reflexology. The steps of sole reflexology was so that after a light sole massage, we kept the heel with the left hand and we bent the ankle with a push to the sole and then we let go of the sole and after that we directly pressed the solar plexus point with the thumb. This was done for 30 minutes for both legs. The steps of palm reflexology was so that massage was performed in three points: pituitary, the solar plexus and the kidney. In total, it took 10 minutes for each hand. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS 21. Results: The fatigue mean in patients with sole reflexology and hand reflexology before reflexology massage was 53/61 and 50/30 respectively. And the difference was not statistically significant (P=0.878). The results showed that there is a significant relationship between sole reflexology and palm reflexology with fatigue reduction (P<0.0001). Conclusion: This study showed the use of reflexology as a safe, effective and low cost nursing intervention to reduce fatigue in patients treated with hemodialysis. © 2018 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.