Effect of early ambulation on reducing hematoma, bleeding, and pain in patients after diagnostic cardiac catheterization

Background: Cardiac catheterization is one of the major diagnostic procedures in CADs involving examination of the right or left part of the heart and the coronary arteries. Cardiac catheterization procedures may lead to local vascular complications after the removal of the femoral arterial sheath. Aim: evaluate the effect of early ambulation on reducing hematoma, bleeding, and pain in patients after diagnostic cardiac catheterization (DCC). Research Design: A quasi-experimental research design (study and control groups) was utilized to fulfill the aim of this study. Setting: This study was carried out at the Cardiac Catheterization Unit, Minia Cadiothorathic University Hospital, Minia City, Egypt. Sample: A purposive sample of 80 patients 40 for each group (male and female) post DCC. Tools: The current study included three tools designed and used for collecting data. First Tool: Patient Assessment, which includes two parts. First Part: Personal Data and Second Part: Medical Data. Second Tool: Femoral Vascular Complication Assessment and Third Tool: Numerical Pain Intensity Scale. Results: Revealed that more than half of the studied groups 72.5% were in the age group from 50 to 65 years. Furthermore, the table revealed that 62.5% of the SG & 77.5% of the CG were male. The study findings revealed that there was a statistically significant positive correlation between early ambulation and the total systolic and diastolic blood pressure among study group. Conclusion: Early ambulation post DCC is safe and has a positive effect on reducing complications among study group. Recommendation: Replication of the study on a larger probability sample from other geographical locations in Egypt to guarantee the generalizability of the study.