PURPOSE
The study was done to analyze the effects of aroma inhalation method on preoperative anxiety of abdominal surgical patients.
METHODS
The research design was a nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design. The data were collected from July 25 to October 21, 2005 at C Medical Center in Seoul. The patients were divided into two group of 24 subjects each. In order for measuring the all patient's anxiety before operation and aroma inhalation, Spidlberger(1975) trait anxiety, VAS(visual analogue scale) state anxiety, blood pressure, pulse rate were taken. After experimental group was taken aroma inhalation, VAS state anxiety, blood pressure, pulse rate were measured for two group.
RESULTS
After aroma inhalation, VAS state anxiety level, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate of the experimental group were decreased significantly than those of control group(p = .000, p = .000, p = .030. p = .000).
CONCLUSION
The aroma inhalation method can be considered an effective nursing intervention that relieves the preoperative anxiety of abdominal surgical patients and stabilizes vital signs.

More and more non-injured operations are being implemented these days, thanks to the development of medical technology. Still, however, most operations leave direct scars on patient' bodies, as well as accompanying pain. The massage as an independent nursing intervention can stimulate the circulation of the blood of tissue and muscle and increase the relationship between a patient and a nurse. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of foot massage on pain in post abdominal operative patients. The nonequivalent control group, pre-post test design is used for this study. From July 7, 2000 to February 20, 2001, the 40 patients who were operated under general anesthesia in a university hospital in Seoul were studied. They were divided into two groups ; 20 patients were part of the experimental group, and the others, in the control group. In order to evaluate the effect of foot massage, severity of pain was checked with the VAS (Visual Analog Scale) and also each patients' vital signs were measured with pulse rate, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. The collected datas were processed by SAS version 6.12 program and analyzed by the Chi-square, Fisher?s exact test, t-test and repeated measures ANOVA. The results of this study were as follows. 1. The severity of pain decreased significantly in the experimental group as compared to the control group following foot massage (t= -3.317, p= .002). 2. Measured vital signs in the experimental group had more reduction of that than in the control group following foot massage. -The pulse rate in the experimental group was lower than that in the control group following foot massage (F=7.73, p=.008). -The systolic blood pressure in the experimental group was lower than that in the control group following foot massage (F=25.75, p=.000). -The diastolic blood pressure in the experimental group was lower than that in the control group following foot massage (F=15.27, p=.000). In conclusion, foot massage is an effective dependent nursing intervention for pain control of post abdominal operative patients.