Effect of Valsalva Maneuver on Level of Pain among Cancer Patients Undergoing Peripheral Venous Cannulation

Background: Cancer is the name given to collection of related diseases. In all types of cancer, some of the body cells begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissues. Adequate vascular access is of paramount importance in oncology patients, it is important in treatment of cancer for chemotherapy. Patients often claim that pain resulting from procedures is often worse than the condition which needs procedure. Valsalva maneuver is one of the non pharmacological methods that can be used to reduce pain of cannulation. Methods: The study adopted true experimental post test only control group design and was conducted at day care centre of Regional Cancer Hospital Shimla, H. P. (Feb 2018). A total of 100 female patients were selected by simple random sampling technique. Inclusion criteria: Adult female patients above 20 years of age who are prescribed with intravenous cannulation, getting cannulated at arm and who are willing to participate in the study. Exclusion criteria: Patients diagnosed with- respiratory problems, neurological problems, cardio- vascular problems, glaucoma, skin problems on the cannulation site and lung cancer. A structured interview schedule of socio demographic and clinical data was used to get background information and Numerical pain Rating Scale was used to assess the level of pain during cannulation. Results: Data analysis was done by descriptive and inferential statistics. In experimental group 26 % were under the category of none and 68 % were categorised as mild pain. In control group 60 % had moderate and 38 % of the samples experienced severe pain and mean pain score and standard deviation of experimental group as 1.52�1.249 and of control group as 6.14�1.565. The calculated t value as 16.313 at significance level of