| dc.description.abstract | Abstract:
Introduction: Episiotomy is one of the most common obstetric surgical procedures and causes
severe pain and discomfort for pregnant women. Iran is a country rich in medicinal plants, and
Iranians have commonly and widely used herbal medicines since ancient times. This study hence
aimed to investigate the effects of ginger (Zingiber officinale) extract ointment on inflammation,
pain, and healing of an episiotomy incision in order to improve the quality of midwifery care
(with an emphasis on the rapid healing and pain relief at episiotomy site) in nulliparous women.
Methodology: This triple-blind randomized clinical trial was conducted in a public hospital of
Marand City, Iran, on 70 nulliparous women with mediolateral episiotomy incisions. Using
block randomization, those who met the inclusion criteria were assigned to the two groups of
ginger extract ointment and placebo ointment with 1:1 allocation ratio. The REEDA (redness,
edema, ecchymosis, discharge, and approximation of the wound edges) scale and a Visual
Analogue Scale (VAS) were employed to measure episiotomy healing and average pain
intensity, respectively, before discharge from the hospital and 5±1 and 10±1 days after the
intervention. The collected data were statistically analyzed using the chi-square test, the
independent t-test, and the Mann-Whitney U test (if the data were not normally distributed) in
SPSS-18. A 90% confidence level and a p-value ≤0.05 were used.
.Findings: The results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the
participants treated with ginger extract ointment and those treated with placebo ointment in
episiotomy healing before the intervention (p=0.894), 5±1 days after the intervention (p=0.695),
and 10±1 days after the intervention (p=0.986). There was no significant difference between the
two groups in average pain intensity before the intervention (p=0.924), 5±1 days after the
intervention (p=0.576), and 10±1 days after the intervention either (p=0.400).
Conclusion: The study findings revealed that the 200 mg dose of ginger ointment could not
significantly reduce episiotomy pain or improve episiotomy healing 5 and 10 days after the
intervention. It seems that more and longer clinical studies with different doses of this ointment
are needed before coming to a definitive conclusion about its effects.
Keywords: Episiotomy, Wound Healing, Pain, Ginger | en_US |
