The Effect of Emotional FreedomTechnique on Postoperative Pain, Pain Belief and Anxiety in Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Planned Patients

Cardiovascular diseases are among the most important causes of mortality and morbidity rates occurring in the world and in our country every year despite the developing technology and treatment methods (1).When the Death and Cause of Death statistics of the Turkish Statistical Institute for 2023 are examined, it is seen that the mortality rate due to circulatory system diseases is 33.4% (2).In the treatment of heart diseases, surgical treatment is frequently preferred in addition to medical treatment. The most commonly used surgical method is open heart surgery (1).Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery provides re-blooding, oxygenation and nutrition of the non-blooded heart tissue by using artery or vein between the aorta in cases of stenosis or occlusion in the structure of the coronary vessels. CABG is a frequently used method in the world and in our country (3). Regardless of the source of surgical intervention, it causes anxiety in patients. When the literature is examined, it is seen that anxiety is experienced in the majority of surgical patients (4). Fear of death and the unknown, complications that may develop after surgery, pain, loss of organ and independence are among the main causes of anxiety (4). In a study in which anxiety levels of patients who will undergo open heart surgery were examined, preoperative anxiety level was found to be 55.80% (5).The vital importance of the heart increases the fear of death and forms the basis of anxiety in the preoperative and postoperative period (1). In the review, it was found that there were descriptive studies on preoperative anxiety of CABG patients (6, 7, 8, 9), and intervention studies were mostly performed in the form of scent sniffing (10), acupressure (11) music therapy (12,13,14) education (13,15,16); emotional freedom technique was not used.