Correlation between pre-anesthesia anxiety and emergence agitation in non-small cell lung cancer surgery patients

Preoperative anxiety is a common emotional problem during the perioperative period and may adversely affect postoperative recovery. Emergence agitation (EA) is a common complication of general anesthesia that may increase patient discomfort and hospital stay and may be associated with the development of postoperative complications. Pre-anesthetic anxiety may be associated with the development of EA, but studies in this area are lacking.

To determine the relationship between pre-anesthetic anxiety and EA after radical surgery in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Eighty patients with NSCLC undergoing surgical treatment between June 2020 and June 2023 were conveniently sampled. We used the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale's (HADS) anxiety subscale (HADS-A) to determine patients' anxiety at four time points (T1-T4): Patients' preoperative visit, waiting period in the surgical waiting room, after entering the operating room, and before anesthesia induction, respectively. The Riker Sedation-Agitation Scale (RSAS) examined EA after surgery. Scatter plots of HADS-A and RSAS scores assessed the correlation between patients' pre-anesthesia anxiety status and EA. We performed a partial correlation analysis of HADS-A scores with RSAS scores.

NSCLC patients' HADS-A scores gradually increased at the four time points: 7.33 ± 2.03 at T1, 7.99 ± 2.22 at T2, 8.05 ± 2.81 at T3, and 8.36 ± 4.17 at T4. The patients' postoperative RSAS score was 4.49 ± 1.18, and 27 patients scored ≥ 5, indicating that 33.75% patients had EA. HADS-A scores at T3 and T4 were significantly higher in patients with EA (9.67 ± 3.02 vs 7.23 ± 2.31, 12.56 ± 4.10 vs 6.23 ± 2.05, P < 0.001). Scatter plots showed the highest correlation between HADS-A and RSAS scores at T3 and T4. Partial correlation analysis showed a strong positive correlation between HADS-A and RSAS scores at T3 and T4 (r = 0.296, 0.314, P < 0.01).

Agitation during anesthesia recovery in patients undergoing radical resection for NSCLC correlated with anxiety at the time of entering the operating room and before anesthesia induction.