investigating the effect of acupressure on hugo's point for venous catheterization pain: a double-blinded rct

Introduction: hugo point massage is a non-pharmacological method suggested to reduce pain, commonly experienced after invasive procedures. this study aimed to assess the effect of hugo point massage on pain caused by venous catheterization.materials and methods: in this double-blinded rct, 68 surgical candidates meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria were randomly assigned to control and intervention groups via dice rolling. the intervention group received a three-minute hugo point massage before venipuncture in the antecubital area, performed by a nurse. the control group underwent standard venipuncture by the same nurse. pain was assessed using the numerical pain rating scale (nprs) before, during, and five minutes after venipuncture. statistical analyses, including chi-square, repeated measure anova, fisher's exact test, post hoc, and kolmogorov-smirnov tests, were conducted using spss v.16 with a significance level of p<0.05. results: the mean age of participants was 51.47 ± 4.28 years. pain intensity scores (mean ± sd) were significantly lower in the intervention group (4.33±0.42) compared to the control group (8.21±1.03). no significant differences were observed between the groups before the intervention, but a significant reduction in pain was noted five minutes after venipuncture in the intervention group (p<0.05). conclusion: a three-minute hugo point massage before venipuncture significantly reduces catheterization pain.