Application of traditional Chinese medicine nursing technology: Traditional Chinese medicine ironing combined with traditional Chinese medicine massage in improving functional constipation in elderly patients

To explore the therapeutic effect of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) nursing technology combined with TCM massage on elderly patients with functional constipation (FC). Ninety elderly patients with FC admitted to our hospital from January 2022 to February 2023 were selected and randomly divided into 3 groups. The control group was treated with conventional Western medicine, observation group 1 was treated with TCM massage on the basis of the control group, and observation group 2 was treated with medicine ironing combined with TCM massage on the basis of the control group. Compare 3 groups of TCM syndrome scores, clinical efficacy, complete spontaneous bowel movements (CSBM) per week, Bristol fecal trait scale, and safety. There was a statistically significant difference in clinical effective rates among the 3 groups (96.67%, 83.33%, 66.67%) ( P < .05), and the observation group 2 was higher than the observation group 1 and higher than the control group. After treatment, the TCM syndrome scores of the 2 groups were lower than those of the observation group 1 and the control group; And observation showed that the TCM syndrome score of group 1 was lower than that of the control group ( P < .05). After treatment, the increase in scores of CSBM and Bristol fecal traits in the 2 groups was higher than that in the observation group and control group, and the increase in scores of CSBM and Bristol fecal traits in the observation group was higher than that in the control group ( P < .05). There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions among the 3 groups (10.00%, 6.67%, 20.00%) ( P > .05). The application of TCM nursing techniques such as TCM ironing and TCM massage in elderly patients with FC has a significant clinical effect, which can effectively improve clinical symptoms, defecation frequency, and fecal characteristics, and has high safety.