NCT05853250

Clinical and Hospital Stay Effects of Reiki and Manual Therapy After Open Heart Surgery

Clinical (Sleep, Pain and Atrial Fibrillation) and Hospital Stay Effects of Reiki and Manual Therapy After Open Heart Surgery

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 272 (actual)
• Sponsor: The Cleveland Clinic · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Reiki is an energy-based healing therapy using light touch. Manual therapy is a technique using light effleurage. These complimentary healing services are utilized to promote relaxation, sleep, improve emotions, and decrease pain; however, more research is required since sample sizes in the literature were small, subjects were generally healthy (not hospitalized), and subjects had multiple medical backgrounds. Only 1 study focused on cardiac surgery patients. We aim to learn if Reiki and manual therapy enhances postoperative clinical outcomes for patients after first time coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and/or cardiac valve surgery. A randomized, controlled non-blinded study will enroll a sample of a minimum of 272 patient (136 per group), based on a power analysis using the primary outcome. The intervention group will receive usual care plus Reiki and manual therapy, with Reiki delivered first. Total therapies time is 20 minutes. Reiki and manual therapy will be delivered for 3 consecutive days beginning on the day after endotracheal tube removal. The usual care group will receive 20 minutes of uninterrupted rest, which is part of usual postoperative care. Outcomes are depression, anxiety, pain, night time sleep, new onset atrial fibrillation, hospital length of stay, all-cause 30-day hospital readmissions, narcotic drug burden and post-operative complications.

Detailed description

Background: Reiki is an energy-based healing therapy using light touch. Manual therapy is a technique using light effleurage. These complimentary healing services are utilized to promote relaxation, sleep, improve emotions, and decrease pain. After reviewing the Reiki research literature, more research is required since sample sizes were small, subjects were generally healthy (not hospitalized), and subjects had multiple medical backgrounds. Only 1 study focused on cardiac surgery patients. In the current research study, we aim to learn if Reiki and manual therapy enhances postoperative clinical outcomes for patients after first time coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and/or cardiac valve surgery. Design and Methods: A randomized, controlled non-blinded study will be used. The sample size (272 total; 136 per group) was based on a power analysis using the primary outcome. The intervention group will receive usual care plus Reiki and manual therapy, with Reiki being delivered first. Hand placements include: head, chest, shoulders, hands, knees, and feet for 15 minutes. Manual therapy will consist of light effleurage to the head and feet for 5 minutes. Total therapies time is 20 minutes. Reiki and manual therapy will be delivered for 3 consecutive days beginning on the day after endotracheal tube removal. The usual care group will receive 20 minutes of uninterrupted rest, which is part of usual postoperative care. There will not be a sham-treatment group, based on previous research findings. Outcome Measures: depression and anxiety (Brief Symptom Inventory, 12-item self-administered tool); pain (self-reported and recorded in electronic health record by staff nurses as part of usual care -- 0 \[no pain\] - 10 \[worst pain\] scale), highest (worst) and lowest (least) pain in the past 24 hours will be assessed; night time sleep (Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire; 5 item self-administered tool)-to be measured at baseline and after the last Reiki/manual therapy treatment or 3 days of usual care; hospital length of stay, all-cause 30-day hospital readmissions (data top be retrieved from a billing database), narcotic drug burden (mean dose) use on postoperative days 3 and 4 (retrieved from electronic medical records), patient characteristics, medical history, surgical procedure, new onset atrial fibrillation and other post-operative complications (retrieved from the Institutional Review Board--approved Cardiothoracic Surgery database).

Conditions

• Coronary Artery Diseases
• Valvular Heart Diseases

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Reiki/manual therapy	Reiki is delivered by gentle hand placement either on or slightly above the body by certified Reiki practitioners. In this study, Reiki will be delivered first, for 15 minutes and will involve light placement of hands on patients' head, chest, shoulders, hands, knees, and feet (\~ 3 minutes to each body part). Manual therapy techniques include light effleurage to head and feet (for 5 minutes; \~ 2.5 minutes to each body part) by the Reiki practitioner who delivered the Reiki therapy.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-06-26
• Primary completion: 2019-09-18
• Completion: 2020-02-05
• First posted: 2023-05-10
• Last updated: 2025-09-18
• Results posted: 2025-09-18

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States