A practical guide to reducing preoperative and intraoperative patient anxiety in dermatologic surgery

Dermatologists perform a variety of procedures including excisions, biopsies, and other minor surgical procedures. Patients can experience anxiety in anticipation of their surgeries or may develop anxiety during the procedure. Since most dermatologic procedures occur with the patient awake and alert, the physician can offer comforting methods to alleviate some of that anxiety.

We wanted to provide a review of available methods that dermatologists can use to reduce patient anxiety.

In this paper, we review the current literature on methods that can be used in dermatology offices to reduce overall patient anxiety levels.

In the preoperative stage, providers can offer educational content to explain the procedure to their patients. Whether it be through telephone calls, educational videos, or utilization of visual models, educating the patient regarding their procedure may reduce their anxiety. Intraoperatively, there are multiple methods that can be used such as music, guided imagery, coloring books, medications, hypnosis, and distraction techniques.

There is a variety of approaches that can be easily implemented in the office and can help in reducing the anxiety of the patients to allow for a pleasant patient experience and an overall satisfactory procedure outcome.