A Randomized Controlled Trial to Assess the Efficacy of a Pre-operative Virtual Operation Theatre Tour on Anxiety and Patient Satisfaction in Adults Undergoing Elective Surgery

Abstract

Background: The study objective involves the evaluation of preoperative audiovisual information on the operation theater environment as a tool to relieve anxiety in patients posted for infra umbilical elective surgery under spinal anesthesia. Perioperative anxiety is detrimental to both intraoperative hemodynamic instability and postoperative recovery.Material and methods: The design was a single-center, prospective, randomized control trial. There were 120 patients in this study within the 18-60-year-old age range who were American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) class I-II admitted for infra-umbilical surgery excluding lower segment cesarean section (LSCS) under spinal anesthesia. Patients were randomized into two groups: those who were not exposed to an audiovisual tour (NA) (n = 60) and those who were exposed to an audiovisual tour (A) (n = 60). The measurements are based on the demographic details of the patient; the visual analogue score (VAS); and the Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS) for anxiety, hemodynamic parameters i.e., blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), and patient satisfaction score (PSS) on a five-point Likert scale were noted perioperatively for both the groups.Results: The main results showed a significant (p-value <0.05) decrease in VAS and APAIS for anxiety, HR, and PSS. This was observed during the intraoperative and postoperative periods in the A group in comparison to the NA group. Conclusion:The preoperative audiovisual virtual tour of the operation theater effectively reduces perioperative anxiety and stabilizes HR; it also improves the satisfaction of patients undergoing elective surgery under spinal anesthesia.

Prevalence of patient-reported perioperative anaesthesia-related anxiety, anxiety triggers and its association with patient satisfaction: a retrospective, observational study in Switzerland

“…A systematic review conducted in 2017 including 27 studies regarding the format of information and its effect on anxiety found no signi cant change by the use of either verbal information, multimedia or text or combinations of those 30 . More recent reports regarding the mode of information vary from studies assessing the informant setting (physician versus peri-anaesthesia nurse with physician as back-up for di cult situations and informed consent) 41 , the use of multimedia such as by providing virtual operating room tours 42 , using videos for the preoperative visit such as for abdominal surgery 43 or spinal anaesthesia 44,45 or providing online communication platforms 46 . (Table 7) Still, the scoring systems used to measure patient satisfaction and anxiety, the timing of the measurement of both patient satisfaction and anxiety as well as the timing of interventions such as the examples named above vary widely as depicted in Table 7 thus leaving clinicians with numerous open questions.…”