Anxiety in the Operating Room Before Elective Surgery

Abstract

The experience of pre-operative anxiety in patients is a common and accepted issue; however, anxiety can potentially increase the patients' need for care, the level of post-operative pain, and ultimately patients' morbidity and mortality. The goal of this study was to determine the patients' pre-operative anxiety level right before they undergo surgery in the operating room. This study was conducted as a prospective cross-sectional study. Accordingly, completed State-Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaires as well as demographic and contextual variables of 230 patients undergoing surgery were evaluated. Data analysis was taken out using SPSS v24. P of less than 0.05 was considered significant. 230 patients with an average age of 48.95 (14.68) years were enrolled. The frequency of mild, moderate, and severe anxiety among the patients was 50.8%, 37%, and 12.2%, respectively. The analysis revealed that the patients' age, gender, occupation, awareness about the type of anesthesia, and place of residence, as well as the type of anesthesia, had no significant correlation with the patients' pre-operative anxiety. However, a significant difference was found regarding patients’ pre-operative anxiety level and their educational, marital, awareness of post-operative complications, and trait anxiety status as well as their history of anesthesia. Therefore, to reduce post-operative complications, it is recommended that the patients with these characteristics be given priority for interventions aimed at reducing pre-operative anxiety.

Keywords

• Anxiety
• Pre-operative period
• Surgery
• Anesthesia
• Stress