Background: Abdominal surgeries are considered to be one of the most painful surgical 
procedures which defined as surgery pertaining to the content of the abdominal cavity. 
Massage therapy is a technique that promotes the manual mobilization of several structures 
from both muscle and subcutaneous tissue, The study was aimed to determine the effect of 
massage therapy on sleep disturbances and pain control for children post abdominal surgeries. 
Subjects and method: Purposive sampling of 60 children post abdominal surgeries 
participated in the present study divided into two equal groups study and control group. The 
study was conducted at the Pediatric Surgical Department of Tanta University Hospital. Four 
tools were used for data collection: structured interview schedule for socio-demographic 
characteristics of the children, sleep diaries, assessment for sleep disturbances scale for 
children, physiological measurement, pain assessment by using numerical rating scale, and 
FLACC behavioral pain assessment scale. The results showed children in the study group 
significantly improved of sleep disturbances and physiological measurement decreased pain 
level after implementing massage therapy postoperatively Conclusions: The difference was 
statistically significant after implementing massage therapy in the study group than control 
group. The study recommended that ongoing in-service education programs must be 
designed and implemented for nurses about massage therapy. Future studies are suggested 
with increased sample sizes, a longer interventional period duration, and an objective measure 
of sleep