Prevalence of Preoperative Anxiety and Its Relationship with Postoperative Pain in Foot Nail Surgery: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Preoperative anxiety has been studied in different medical disciplines, but it is unknown in minor surgical procedures such as foot nail surgery. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of preoperative anxiety and postoperative pain in foot nail surgery. The validated Amsterdam preoperative anxiety and information scale (APAIS) was used to evaluate preoperative anxiety and the need for information in 155 patients undergoing foot nail surgery. In addition, a questionnaire was used to collect other variables such as age, sex and educational level. The verbal numeric scale was employed to value the postoperative pain after 24 h. Age and sex influenced (p < 0.05) preoperative anxiety, which had a prevalence of 22.6%. More than 43% of patients needed more information and this was correlated with anxiety (r = 0.629; p < 0.001). There was a significant difference when comparing the total anxiety between the group of participants who had more pain and that who had less pain (p < 0.001). The prevalence of anxiety was high in the participants of this study, being greater in young patients and in women. There was a deficit of information, increasing the level of preoperative anxiety, which in turn was related with greater postoperative pain.