Published Paper Details:

Background: Dialysis is a medical treatment that removes waste materials and extra fluid from the blood when the kidneys are no longer able to work properly. During this process, blood is taken out of the body and passed through a machine that cleans it before returning it. Under normal conditions, the kidneys filter the blood, removing harmful substances and excess water and producing urine to be excreted from the body. Dialysis performs this essential function when the kidneys fail, preventing waste products from building up in the bloodstream and causing illness. Objectives: 1) To assess the level of Muscle cramps among the hemodialysis patients. 2) To evaluate the effectiveness of Leg Exercises on Muscle cramps. 3) To find the association between level of muscle cramp scores with selected socio-demographic variables. Hypothesis: H1: The mean post-test level of muscle cramps scores will be significantly higher than mean pretest level of muscle cramps. H2: There will be significant association between post-test level of muscle cramps scores with selected socio-demographic variables at 0.05 level of significance. Methodology: The research design consisted of pre-experimental research design of one group pretest and post-test design. The population selected for the study was hemodialysis patients in selected Hospitals at Vijayapur, Karnataka. The study samples were 40 hemodialysis patients and were selected by using purposive sampling technique. The development of the tool involved steps of test construction i.e. preparing the blue print, selection of items, content validation and establishment of reliability. The content validity of the questionnaire was done and modifications were done according to the suggestions given by the experts. Pre-testing and reliability of the tools were done. The reliability coefficient of the cramp score was found to be 0.893.The tool was found to be reliable. Results: Out of 40 Hemodialysis patients, majority 28(70.0%) of the Hemodialysis patients had mild cramps, followed by 7(17.5%) of the Hemodialysis patients had moderate cramps, very few 5(12.5%) of the Hemodialysis patients had severe cramps and there were no Hemodialysis patients with no cramps. After leg Exercises techniques, 65% of the Hemodialysis patients had Mild cramps, 20.0% of the Hemodialysis patients had no cramps, 10.0% of the Hemodialysis patients had Moderate cramps and remaining 05% of the Hemodialysis patients had severe cramps. The mean pre-test pain score was 3.42 while mean post test score was 2.12 and difference in mean pre-test and post test score was highly significant with t-value =9.93 with p-value < 0.0001. Conclusion and Recommendations: The result of the study concluded that, there was a significant improvement obtained following leg exercises on muscle cramps. This study recommended that there is an immense need of leg exercises in dialysis hospitals areas to prevent the muscle cramps of dialysis patients.