Comparing the effect of acupressure and ginger on chemotherapy gastrointestinal side-effects in children with leukemia

Abstract

The biosocial data of 90 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, were collected along with assessment of gastrointestinal side-effects of chemotherapy using visual analogue scale. Ginger lozenges has more effect than acupressure in alleviating nausea and vomiting. Acupressure alleviate the nausea best in the group aged 13–15 years. Ginger helped more the other two groups (7–12 years, 69 % of the group didn’t suffer from nausea), versus 50 % aged 13–15). Both acupressure and ginger affected girls more than boys in alleviating nausea. The acupressure effect on vomiting incidence didn’t differ in both males and males, whilst ginger helped the males more.

Keywords

• Children with leukemia
• Acupressure
• Ginger
• Gastrointestinal side effects
• Chemotherapy