East Meets West: Effects of Massage on the Experience of Cardiac Surgery Patients

In 2010, almost 400 000 patients underwent coronary artery bypass procedures in the United States.¹  Despite advances in pain management, pain continues to be an important postoperative problem.²  Sources of pain include surgical positioning, incisions, retraction of chest wall tissues, dissection of major chest wall muscles, electrocautery, and insertion of catheters and drains—especially chest tubes. As a result, cardiac surgery patients often experience musculoskeletal pain in the neck, back, and shoulders.^2,3  Yet the pathway to recovery presents more than physical challenges. Cardiac surgery patients face emotional distress, fear of death, uncertainty, and depressive symptoms.⁴ 

Healing after major surgery may be aided by the integration of the best that Eastern and Western medicine have to offer. Massage is a broad array of techniques that involve “manual soft-tissue manipulation that includes holding, causing movement, or applying pressure to the body.”⁵  (p With a long tradition,...