• Serpil Yüksel, Seher Deniz Öztekin, Zeynep Temiz, Gülay Altun Uğraş, Emel Şengül, Serkan Teksöz, Nihal Sunal, İlhan Öztekin, and Ertuğrul Göksoy.
• Necmettin Erbakan University, Faculty of Nursing, Department of Surgical Nursing, Konya, Turkey. Office phone: +903323204049 (2029 ext.).
• Afr Health Sci. 2020 Mar 1; 20 (1): 488-497.

BackgroundThe patient's position is important for ensuring patient comfort and preventing complications after thyroidectomy.ObjectivesThis study was carried out to determine the effects of different degrees of head-of-bed elevation (HOBE) on the respiratory pattern and drainage following thyroidectomy and to provide suggestions for evidence-based clinical practice.MethodsThe sample of this prospective, parallel arm, randomized controlled trial included 114 patients undergoing thyroidectomy in a university hospital in Turkey. The patients were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to supine 0° (baseline), 30° and 45° HOBE groups. Respiratory pattern including respiratory rate (RR), peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2) and dyspnea, and drainage including amount of drainage and hematoma formation were evaluated at the 1rd, 2rd, 3rd and 4th hours following thyroidectomy.ResultsThe majority of the patients (83.3%) were female and 84.2% had undergone total thyroidectomy. The mean RR (18.47, 95% CI=17.85-19.09) of the patients in the supine 30° HOBE group at the 1rd hour was significantly higher than that of the patients in the supine 0° group (17.32, 95% CI=16.88-17.76; p<0.05). There was no significant difference between the SpO2 values of the patients in the groups (p>0.05). The amount of drainage was significantly higher in the supine 0° group at the 2nd hour than that of the patients in the supine 45° HOBE group (5.92±5.18; 3.34±5.56 respectively; p<0.05). None of the patients in the groups had hematoma formation. While no patient in the supine 30° HOBE group had dyspnea, dyspnea occurred in 9 patients in the supine 0° group and in 3 patients in the supine 45° HOBE group.ConclusionThis study showed that different HOBE positions resulted in clinically insignificant changes on the RR and amount of drainage during the first 4 hours following thyroidectomy but did not affect SpO2 value.© 2020 Yüksel S et al.

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