Effect of cold application and compression on pain and bruising in subcutaneous heparin injection

•After subcutaneous injection administrations, local complications such as ecchymosis, hematoma, and pain can be seen at the injection site usually depending on the injection technique.•As a result of our study, ecchymosis development and pain intensity were found to be lower in the compression group than in the cold application and control groups.•In addition, ecchymosis and pain developed less in the cold application group compared to the control group. Subcutaneous administration may result in complications such as bruising and pain at the injection site. This study was performed as in order to determine the effect of cold application and compression on pain and bruising in subcutaneous heparin injection. The study was a randomized controlled trial. 72 patients were included in the study. Each patient in the sample was both experimental (cold and compression) and control groups and 3 different parts of abdomen were used for injection of each patient. The data of the research were collected by using Patient Identification Form, Subcutaneous Heparin Observation Form and Visual Analog Scale (VAS). In the study, it was observed that after heparin injection, ecchymosis developed in 16.4%, 28.8%, and 54.8% of the patients, respectively, and pain was experienced during injection in 12.3%, 43.5%, and 44.2% of the patients, respectively, on the pressure, cold application, and control site groups, and this difference was statistically significant (p