Objective To explore the effects of nursing interventions based on action research on lower limb deep vein thrombosis, lower limb edema, coagulation indicators and length of hospital stay in patients treated with thoracic surgery.

Methods Eighty patients treated with thoracic surgery were selected as the research subjects, and divided into the observation group (40 cases) and control group (40 cases) according to the digital randomization method. The routine health education, postoperative bed elevation of the lower limbs, ankle pump exercise and other routine nursing interventions were given in the control group after the operation. The nursing intervention based on the action research method was implemented in the observation group. The indicators such as plasma D-dimer (D-D), incidence of symptoms related to thrombosis precursors, length of hospital stay and patient satisfaction at different time points were compared between two groups.

Results The plasma D-D levels in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group after 1 and 4 days of operation (P ＜ 0.05). The incidences of skin redness, lower limb edema and lower limb pain in the observation group patients were in 1 case, 3 cases, and 1 case, respectively, which were lower than whose in control group (4, 8, and 5 cases), but the difference between two groups was not statistically significant (P ＞ 0.05). The awareness rate, level and satisfaction of thrombosis related knowledge in the observation group were better than those in the control group (P ＜ 0.05 ~ P ＜ 0.01), and the hospitalization time of the observation group was shorter than that of control group (P ＜ 0.05).

Conclusions Nursing intervention based on the action research method is helpful to prevent the occurrence of postoperative thrombosis in patients treated with thoracoscopic surgery, reduce the related symptoms of thrombosis precursors, significantly shorten the length of hospital stay, and improve patients' satisfaction with nursing work.