Effect of Combination of Slow Deep Breathing and Ice Therapy towards Comfort Level in Arteriovenous Fistula Insertion of Hemodialysis Patients in PKU Muhammadiyah Hospital Yogyakarta

Patients with chronic renal disease undergoing hemodialysis will have arteriovenous (AV) fistula insertion for 2–3 times a week or an average of ten punctures per month. Intervention of comfort technical with combination of slow deep breathing and ice therapy help to reduce discomfort due to AV fistula insertion. The objective of this research was to determine the effect of combination of slow deep breathing and ice therapy on comfort level of AV fistula insertion. This research was conducted from January until February 2015 at PKU Muhammadiyah Hospital Yogyakarta. Type of this research is a quasi experiment with only post test group design with control group. The sample was divided into 20 patients in intervention group and 20 patients in control groups through simple random sampling technique. For each group, discomfort level was measured using Visual Analog Scale after AV fistula insertion. In intervention group, respondents were given a combination of deep breathing and ice therapy on acupuncture points LI4 10 minutes before insertion. The data were collected twice and analyzed of the difference between intervention group and control group using Chi-Square, Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney test. There was a significant difference between intervention group and control group using Visual Analog Scale discomfort with p=0.000. Provision of comfort technical intervention with combination of slow deep breathing and ice therapy proved to improve the comfort of hemodialysis patients while undergoing insertion of AV fistula