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Five minutes of box breathing may take the edge off chest tube removal

NCT ID NCT07808658

Symptom relief Sponsor: Mersin University Source: ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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Recruitment status, easiest to join first

Recruiting now
This trial is taking on new participants right now.
Not yet recruiting This study
Registered, but not yet taking participants.
By invitation only
Not open to general applications. Only people the study team invites can take part.
Paused
Paused for now. It may or may not start again.
Ongoing
Running, but no longer taking on new participants.
Completed
The trial has finished. Results may not be published yet.
Stopped early
Stopped early, before it reached the end. That can be for many reasons, including safety.
Cancelled
Cancelled before anyone took part.

Expanded access (not trials)

Expanded access
Not a trial. This treatment can be requested outside a study, case by case, for people who qualify.
Expanded access (paused)
Not a trial. The treatment can normally be requested outside a study, but is unavailable right now.
Expanded access (ended)
Not a trial. The treatment could once be requested outside a study, but no longer can.
Approved
The treatment has been approved, so it is available normally rather than through this programme.

When the status isn't known

Details not published
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Status unknown
This status has not been confirmed recently, so it may be out of date.

First seen Sep 09, 2026 · Last updated Sep 11, 2026 · Updated 2 times

Summary

Researchers are testing whether a five-minute box breathing exercise can reduce pain, anxiety, and breathlessness when a chest tube is removed after open-heart surgery. The trial enrolls 86 adults who have just had heart surgery and still have a chest tube. Half perform 15 cycles of 4-4-4-4 breathing right before the tube comes out, while the other half receive routine care. The team measures pain, anxiety, dyspnea, and heart and blood pressure readings before and after the procedure.

What this could mean

Our plain-language read of the trial. This is informational only, not medical advice or a prediction.

Active substance
box breathing, a guided slow-breathing relaxation technique
What this could lead to
If it helps, box breathing could become a free, drug-free way to ease the discomfort of chest tube removal for heart surgery patients.
What could go wrong
This is a small single-center study of 86 people, so any benefit may be modest or may not hold up in larger or different hospital settings. Breathing exercises cannot replace pain medication, and some patients may find the technique hard to do while anxious.

This is an AI summary of the original study and may miss details. Read our disclaimer.

Study facts

What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.

Phase

Not a phased trial

Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.

Participants

About 86 people

The number the study aims to enrol. It can still change while the study runs.

Expected to start

Oct 2026

An estimate. Start dates often move.

Expected to finish

Oct 2027

An estimate. End dates often move.

Lead sponsor

Other sponsor

The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.

Who can take part

This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.

Ages

18 years and older

Sex

Anyone

Healthy volunteers

Not accepted

This study is not open to healthy volunteers. The entry requirements below say who it is open to.

Show the full entry requirements

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients who have undergone open-heart surgery and have a chest tube * Aged 18 years or older * Willing to participate in the study and providing written informed consent * Conscious, oriented, and cooperative * Able to read and understand Turkish * Clinically and hemodynamically stable * Having no more than three chest tubes (up to two mediastinal and one thoracic chest tube) * No diagnosed psychiatric disorder * Not receiving psychiatric medications and/or local neuromuscular blocking agents Exclusion Criteria: * Patients who have not undergone open-heart surgery * Unconscious, disoriented, or uncooperative patients * Unable to read and understand Turkish * Intubated patients * Receiving additional analgesic medication other than routine analgesia * Receiving local anesthesia at the chest tube insertion site * Having four chest tubes (two mediastinal and two thoracic) * Unwilling to participate in the study * Having a diagnosed psychiatric disorder or mental health condition

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Conditions

The condition(s) this trial relates to.

anxiety disorder Dyspnea Pain

As listed by the trial registrant

The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.

Open heart surgery

How to take part

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  1. The places running it

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  2. The official record

    ClinicalTrials.gov lists the study team's own contact details, including names and phone numbers. We don't republish those.

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Contacts and locations

Locations

  • Turkey, Mersin University Hospital

    Yenişehir, Mersin, 33120, Turkey (Türkiye)

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