The effect of preoperative anxiety on the incidence of perioperative bronchospasm: a prospective observational study

Independently from the chronic anxiety disorder, patients could feel nervousness and anxiety due to surgical stress during preoperative period. Preoperative anxiety could lead to various complications owing to autonomous nerve system activation. We targeted to examine the effects of preoperative anxiety on bronchospasm. In the study, 20-50 years old ASA I patient to be given elective endoscopic urologic operations were included. Totally 124 patients were evaluated during preoperative period. The patients were interviewed before the operation to determine their anxiety levels (Beck Anxiety Scale). Patients were grouped according to anxiety state. 58 anxious patients (Study Group) and 66 non-anxious (Control Group) were compared according to bronchospasm, wheezing, SpO2 paucity and ETCO2 extent. Incidence of bronchospasm and wheezing were found more in the patient group having preoperative anxiety (p<0.05). No meaningful correlation was found between the groups with regard to the changes in SpO2 and ETCO2. Various studies were conducted using emotion-induction techniques. However, they produced artificial stress and these results were not associated with any surgical procedures. Unlike all these studies, we showed natural clinical course of non-induced anxiety effects on all perioperative period. Our study demonstrated that anxiety prior to a general anesthesia and changes in the emotional state could create a risk for total respiratory resistance. These changes could arise as bronchospasm and wheezing during the perioperative period.