Purpose
Preoperative anxiety is well known to influence response to anesthesia and analgesic consumption<br /> The Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS) has been utilized in various surgical scenarios and found to have validity in evaluating preoperative anxiety. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the preoperative anxiety in adult patients undergoing oculoplastic and squint surgeries using the APAIS scale. To date no such study has been conducted
Methods
We performed a prospective, non-randomized assessment of 55 patients. 30 were undergoing eyelid surgery under local anesthesia (LA) and 25 were undergoing squint surgery under general anesthesia (GA). All the patients were treated in similar conditions. Anxiety was evaluated pre-operatively by the French version of the APAIS. This scale is composed of 6 simple questions: 2 evaluate the anxiety regarding anesthesia, 2 concern anxiety about the surgery and 2 questions evaluate the need for information about the surgery and anesthesia. Each question is rated on a severity scale of 1 to 5. For each patient a global APAIS score, considering all parameters was calculated. Individual anesthesia, surgery and need for information APAIS scores were also calculated. The APAIS scores were collected and tabulated. The data was analyzed with nonparametric Mann Whitney U, ANOVA, Tukey’s and Bartlett’s tests. P<0.05 was considered significant
Results
Of the 55 patients studied, 24 were female. the mean age was 54 years. The global anxiety scale was not significantly different between male and female patients (P=0.09). Also, there was no significant difference in global and surgery APAIS scores between the oculoplastic and strabismus surgery groups (P=0.38). Likewise, the need for information was similar in both groups of patients. However, there was significant difference in APAIS scores between GA and LA groups, the GA group, having higher APAIS scores (P=0.002)
Conclusions
The APAIS assessment scale revealed similar anxiety levels and need for information in both oculoplastic and strabismus procedures. Higher anxiety levels were found for GA than LA. This study has clinical implications as results of pre-operative anxiety assessment can assist with operative and post-operative patient management. This is the first study using the APAIS scale for pre-operative evaluation of anxiety in oculoplastic and strabismus surgeries