The Effect of Aromatherapy with the Essential Oil of Orange on Pain and Vital Signs of Patients with Fractured Limbs Admitted to the Emergency Ward: A Randomized Clinical Trial

摘要

Background and objective: Pain is an emotional and unpleasant experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. In this regard, this paper aims at studying the effect of aromatherapy with the essential oil of orange on patients with fractured limbs admitted to the emergency ward. Methods: 60 patients admitted to the emergency ward and then were divided in two groups of control and experiment by block method. 4 drops of the orange oil was poured on a pad and was pinned with a plastic pin to the patient's collar, about 20 cm distant from head. The old pad was replaced by the new one every 1 h. The patients' pain and vital signs were checked every 1 h for at last 6 h. The data were analyzed by SPSS21. Results: 40 (66.7%) patients were male and 20 (33.3%) were female. Their age average was 37.93 ± 18.19 years old. The most fractured cases were in the scapular (11 patients (18.3%)). Friedman test showed that pain in the experiment group (0.0001) increased significantly rather than the control group (0.339). There could be found no significant change between the two groups based on vital signs. Conclusion: Aromatherapy with orange oil can relieve pain in patients with fractured limbs but has no effect on their vital signs. Therefore, aromatherapy with orange oil can be used as a complementary medicine in these patients.