Law YXT. et al., 2023: Law YXT, Kesavan A, Loke W, Chua WJ, Tai BC, Shen L, Tiong HY, Chen WJK.

Law YXT, Kesavan A, Loke W, Chua WJ, Tai BC, Shen L, Tiong HY, Chen WJK.
Department of Urology, National University Hospital, National University Health System, 1E Kent Ridge Road, NUHS Tower Block, Level 8, Singapore, 119228, Singapore. Department of Urology, National University Hospital, National University Health System, 1E Kent Ridge Road, NUHS Tower Block, Level 8, Singapore, 119228, Singapore.
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore.
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore.
Biostatistics Unit, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the effect of aromatherapy with lavender oil alone, and in combination with music, on pain and anxiety during extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy for kidney stones.

Methods: This was a single-centre prospective, randomised controlled trial. The subjects were block randomised into 3 study groups, Group 1: Control; Group 2: Aromatherapy only; Group 3: Aromatherapy and music. All subjects were given patient-controlled intravenous alfentanil as standard analgesia. The primary outcome measures were pain and anxiety scores using visual analogue scale (VAS) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory.

Results: Ninety patients were recruited and randomised prospectively into Group 1 (n = 30), Group 2 (n = 30), and Group 3 (n = 30). For pain outcome, both Group 2 and Group 3 showed a trend towards lower mean VAS pain scores of 2.73 in both groups compared to the control with a mean VAS score of 3.50, but it was not statistically significant (p = 0.272). There was no significant difference in anxiety scores between groups post-treatment.

Conclusions: Our study was unable to show a significant improvement in pain relief and anxiety when aromatherapy with lavender oil was added to standard analgesia alone during shockwave lithotripsy. There was also no difference when aromatherapy was combined with music.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

Int Urol Nephrol. 2023 Jul 3. doi: 10.1007/s11255-023-03684-0. Online ahead of print.PMID: 37395910