the effect of malva sylvestris cream on episiotomy pain and healing: a randomized controlled clinical trial

Background: episiotomy is one of the common procedures during childbirth in iran, which causespain, discomfort, and scar in the perineum. this study aimed to pursue the effect of malva sylvestriscream on episiotomy pain and healing.methods: this study was a double-blinded randomized-controlled clinical trial that was conductedfrom april to december 2021 at the sina hospital in ahvaz, iran. sixty women were selected andrandomly assigned to control and intervention groups using block randomization. the main outcomesincluded pain assessment and episiotomy wound healing that are assessed by the visual analogscale (vas), and perineal healing scale included redness, edema, ecchymosis/bruising, discharge,approximation (reeda). the cream was used twice a day for up to 14 days. the participants werefollowed on the first, seventh, and fourteenth days postpartum. independent t-test, mann-whitney,and chi-square, and generalized estimating equations (gee) model were used by spss softwareversion 22 for data analysis. statistically significant level was considered less than 0.05.results: there were no significant statistical differences between the two groups in demographiccharacteristics (p>0.05). no significant statistical differences were found in both groups in terms ofperineal healing (b=-0.05; p=0.89) and pain scores (b=0.15; p=0.56). however, the chance of externaldysuria in the intervention group decreased by 77% (p=0.01).conclusion: despite showing the positive effect of malva sylvestris extract on wound healing in animaland in-vitro studies, this clinical study failed to show the positive effect of this extract on wound healingand pain relief of episiotomy. however, future clinical trials are needed to substantiate the above findings.