The effect of slow deep breathing relaxation exercise on pain levels during and post chest tube removal after coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

The study was done in a single cardiac ICU in Jordan, so the results may not apply to other hospitals or patients outside that setting. Participants were chosen by convenience, and the paper says this limits external validity. Patients had to be fully conscious, oriented, able to follow commands, and free of visual or auditory impairment, so the result may not apply to patients who cannot meet those requirements. The breathing group received the technique alongside usual care, and the control group received usual care including prescribed NSAID analgesics after removal, so the effect of breathing alone cannot be separated from those components. Pain was measured only before removal and at 5 and 15 minutes after removal, so longer-term pain or complications were not assessed.

The study was funded by Jordan University of Science and Technology, Deanship of Scientific Research, and the authors declared no conflict of interest.

Do not read the 0.00 median pain score at 15 minutes as proof that the breathing exercise eliminated pain for all patients. It was a median in a small single centre study, and the intervention was added to usual care that included analgesics.