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Monday, 31 October 2011
Learning Objective 1: The learner will understand that the VAS measuring fear of anesthesia and surgery correlated well with the vasoconstriction before induction of anesthesia.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will understand that VAS as an assessment of preoperative anxiety may help understand the preoperative physiological alteration.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between the visual analog scale (VAS) and changes to physiological parameters such as degree of vasoconstriction, heart rate, and blood pressure before the induction of anesthesia.
Background: Patients who undergo surgery often experience acute psychological distress during the preoperative period. Previous studies have shown that the visual analog scale can effectively measure preoperative anxiety, but the relationship between VAS and physiological alteration has not been fully discussed.
METHOD: A hundred patients undergoing elective major abdominal surgery scheduled to last two hours were prospectively studied. A 100-mm VAS was used to measure the fear of anesthesia and the fear of surgery. The degree of vasoconstriction was evaluated by the parameter of forearm skin temperature minus that of fingertip. Heart rate and blood pressure changes were assessed by the difference between the baseline data observed at admission and that observed before induction of anesthesia.
RESULTS: The median VAS anxiety scores were 40 for fear of anesthesia and 48 for surgery. These results correlated well with the degree of vasoconstriction (r = 0.682, p < .001 and r = 0.627, p < .001). Significant differences were found (p <.001) with changes to the heart rate and blood pressure before induction of anesthesia.
DISCUSSION: The results of this study suggest that using VAS to assess preoperative anxiety may help in understanding preoperative physiological alterations. For future study, extreme cases and effective methods for reducing preoperative anxiety through physiological alteration will be investigated.
Background: Patients who undergo surgery often experience acute psychological distress during the preoperative period. Previous studies have shown that the visual analog scale can effectively measure preoperative anxiety, but the relationship between VAS and physiological alteration has not been fully discussed.
METHOD: A hundred patients undergoing elective major abdominal surgery scheduled to last two hours were prospectively studied. A 100-mm VAS was used to measure the fear of anesthesia and the fear of surgery. The degree of vasoconstriction was evaluated by the parameter of forearm skin temperature minus that of fingertip. Heart rate and blood pressure changes were assessed by the difference between the baseline data observed at admission and that observed before induction of anesthesia.
RESULTS: The median VAS anxiety scores were 40 for fear of anesthesia and 48 for surgery. These results correlated well with the degree of vasoconstriction (r = 0.682, p < .001 and r = 0.627, p < .001). Significant differences were found (p <.001) with changes to the heart rate and blood pressure before induction of anesthesia.
DISCUSSION: The results of this study suggest that using VAS to assess preoperative anxiety may help in understanding preoperative physiological alterations. For future study, extreme cases and effective methods for reducing preoperative anxiety through physiological alteration will be investigated.