Effect of early ambulation to peristaltic activity of abdominal post-operative patients in Medan city hospital, Indonesia

Abstract Postoperative periods of high-risk abdominal surgery cause problems with intestinal peristaltic activity. Manipulation of the abdominal organs during surgical procedures may cause a normal peristaltic loss for about 24-48 hours, depending on the type and duration of surgery. One of the abdominal postoperative recovery processes can be pursued by the planning and implementation of early ambulation ie the immediate stages of activity in postoperative patients starting from waking up and sitting on the bedside until the patient gets out of the bed, stands up and starts walking with assistance in accordance with the patient’s condition. This study aims to identify the effect of early ambulation on the intestinal peristaltic activity of abdominal postoperative patients in Haji Medan Hospital. This research is a quantitative research of quasi-experimental (pre and post-test with the control group). The sample of this research is abdominal postoperative patients of counted 74 respondents that are 37 people in each group taken using consecutive sampling technique. The data collected using an observation sheet of intestinal peristaltic activity with a stethoscope and a watch. Bivariate analysis using statistical analysis with Wilcoxon Test to analyze the pain intensity of control and intervention group before and after the early ambulatory intervention. Mann Whitney Test used to analyze intestinal peristaltic activity between control and intervention group after the early ambulatory intervention. The results of bivariate analysis showed that there was a difference of intestinal peristaltic activity in the control group and the intervention group before and after the early ambulatory intervention (p = 0.000, p <0,05), there was a difference of intestinal peristaltic activity between the unpaired groups after the early ambulatory intervention (p = 0.000; p <0.05). The results of this study can be an input for nursing services and studies to apply the method of early ambulation in accordance with the stages and conditions of abdominal postoperative patients on postoperative peristaltic activity.