Patients’ Fear and Anxiety Associated with Planned Neurosurgery

. Surgical treatment is a very difficult situation for the patient related to the state of feeling fear and anxiety. Anxiety in the pre-operative period may be associated with the course of the planned surgery, the risk of post-operative complications, or with histopathological diagnosis in the case of cancer. Aim. The aim of the study was to examine whether the patients awaiting neurosurgical surgery experience anxiety and fear associated with the treatment and how they assess the level of anxiety in themselves. Material and Methods. The study included 102 adult patients qualified for surgery at the Department of Neurosurgery of the 10th Military Clinical Hospital with the Polyclinic SP HCC in Bydgoszcz. The tests were carried out from 25/04/2017 until 30/06/2017 in the aforementioned Clinic, for which the consent of the Bioethical Commission at the L. Rydygier Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz NCU in Torun (KB 341/2017) was obtained. The research method was a diagnostic survey, whereas the tool applied to assess patients was an original questionnaire containing a placard and basic questions related to the subject of the study. Results. Over half of the respondents were concerned about the planned treatment: 31.4% ticked “yes”, 21.6% “rather yes”. Nearly 65% of respondents did not have concerns about their health status: “rather not” 34.3%, “no” 30.4%. 66.7% of the respondents were accompanied by a sense of fear every day. When assessing pre-operative anxiety, over 50% of patients rated anxiety at level 1 to 3 on a 10-point scale. The dependence of anxiety perception according to age was demonstrated (p≤0.05). In addition, the level of perceived anxiety was higher in patients not burdened with other diseases (p≤0.05). Conclusions. Most neurosurgical patients experienced anxiety in the pre-operative period, more than half of the respondents assessed their anxiety at the low level. The age of patients has been a factor affecting the level of anxiety felt. Older patients were more anxious than younger patients. A higher level of anxious anxiety was demonstrated in patients not burdened with other diseases. (JNNN 2018;7(3):104–110)