Predicting Preoperative Hemodynamic Changes Using the Visual Analog Scale

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate how both visual analog scale cutoff scores and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scores relate to hemodynamic changes in patients entering the operating theater. Design: A prospective observational study. Methods: The study subjects included 130 prospectively enrolled patients who were scheduled for abdominal surgery under combined epidural-general anesthesia and who underwent preoperative anxiety level measurements using both scales. Findings: The heart rate and systolic blood pressure on entering the operating theater were significantly higher than those at baseline in the high and low/moderate anxiety groups. Variations in heart rate and systolic blood pressure were significantly higher, whereas peripheral blood flow was significantly lower in the high anxiety group compared with the low/moderate anxiety group. Conclusions: Using the visual analog scale to measure anxiety can improve our understanding of the hemodynamic changes that occur when patients enter the operating theater. (C) 2015 by American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses