Does increased patient comprehension decrease preoperative anxiety before digestive surgery?

Area of Science:

• Digestive Surgery
• Patient Education
• Preoperative Anxiety Management

Background:

• Patient information retention after surgical consultations is often inadequate.
• Poor information assimilation can contribute to heightened preoperative anxiety.
• The Fédération de Chirurgie Viscérale et Digestive (FCVD) questionnaire assesses patient understanding.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a second, pre-operative information session on patient knowledge retention.
• To assess the effect of enhanced information delivery on preoperative anxiety levels.

Main Methods:

• A prospective, comparative multicenter study involved 89 patients undergoing digestive surgery.
• Patients were divided into a standard care group and an experimental group receiving an additional consultation.
• Information retention and anxiety were measured using the FCVD questionnaire, APAIS, and VAS-A scales.

Main Results:

• The experimental group showed significantly higher FCVD information comprehension (94% vs. 63%).
• The standard group reported higher anxiety levels on the VAS-A scale (6.2 vs. 4.6).
• Anxiety levels were comparable between groups based on the APAIS scale (11.3 vs. 11.9).

Conclusions:

• A second, detailed information session shortly before surgery improves patient comprehension and retention.
• Enhanced understanding and memorization of surgical information effectively reduce preoperative anxiety.