Background: Common clinical problems after surgery include nausea, vomiting and ileus that many patients complain of after their surgery. These complications can delay the patient's discharge from hospital. Nowadays, to reduce drug side effects, the use of complementary medicine, including reflexology, has received a great deal of attention.

Aim: To compare the effect of hand and foot reflexology massages on the severity of nausea, vomiting and ileus in patients after abdominal surgery.

Methods: This is a clinical trial study that was conducted between 2013 and 2015 in the emergency surgical departments of Imam Reza (AS) and Ghaem (AS) hospitals in Mashhad. The samples of this study included 90 women with cholecystitis and appendicitis who met the inclusion criteria. In this study, patients were randomly divided into 3 groups of hand reflexology massage, foot reflexology massage and control. To check the digestive status, gastrointestinal sounds were checked every hour using a clinical stethoscope. Also, information on gas and feces elimination was collected and recorded every hour. The intervention was performed 1 and 12 hours after the surgery. In both groups of hands and foot reflexology massages, after general massage of the hands and feet, the areas related to the abdominal distension and removal of the ileus were pressed. It should be noted that, the duration of massage for each person was 10 minutes (20 minutes in total). Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16 using Chi-square, Fisher’s exact test, two-way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis test and repeated measures ANOVA.

Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the mean score of severity of nausea before the intervention between the three groups (p = 0.90), but after the intervention a significant difference was observed in the mean score of severity of nausea between the three groups (p=0.002). Also, the result of ANOVA test with repeated measure showed a statistically significant difference in the mean score of nausea by group and stage (p<0.001). There was also no statistically significant difference in the frequency of vomiting severity between the three groups after the intervention. However, at 4 and 24 hours after the intervention, a statistically significant difference was observed between the three groups in that regard.

Conclusion: The results showed that both types of hand and foot reflexology massage has positive effects on nausea and return of gastrointestinal movements, so nurses can use reflexology as a non-pharmacological and complementary method to reduce the severity of nausea and return gastrointestinal movements in postoperative patients. Since the reflexology had little or no effect on the severity of vomiting and the acceleration of gastrointestinal movements in patients, further studies in this area are recommended.

Keywords: Reflexology, Pain, Nausea and vomiting, Ileus, Surgery