Be calm before surgery for better outcome

If you are ill and scheduled for a medical procedure, keep calm as feeling high levels of distress, fear and hostility prior to undergoing a surgery like angioplasty may lead to poor outcome, said a study.

"I was surprised by this result. Prior to this study, I did not believe patient mood could have an effect on outcome," said study author Nadja Kadom, acting associate professor of radiology at Emory University School of Medicine.

The team analysed the results of 230 patients, including 120 women and 110 men (mean age 55 years) who underwent interventional radiology procedures including vascular and kidney interventions.

Upon arriving for their procedure, patients were asked to complete a questionnaire called the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) to assess their mood.

Using a five-point rating scale, the patients reported to what extent they felt strong, alert, determined and other positive feeling states and to what degree they were experiencing negative feelings, such as guilt, nervousness or irritability.

Dr. Kadom and fellow researchers grouped the patients based on high and low scores for positive affect and high and low scores for negative affect.

Those groups were then correlated with the occurrence of adverse events during the procedures, such as a prolonged lack of oxygen, low or high blood pressure, post-operative bleeding or an abnormally slow heart rate.

The data revealed that patients with a high negative affect experienced significantly more adverse events than patients with low negative affect.

Of the 104 patients with high negative affect, 23 (22 percent) had an adverse event, compared to 15 (12 percent) of the 126 patients with low negative affect.

"Our study shows that mood matters. You don't need to have a chipper, cheery attitude prior to your procedure. You just have to overcome negative emotions and get to a neutral level," noted Dr Elvira V Lang, interventional radiologist in Boston.

The health care teams should be trained in resilience and techniques to create their own positive emotional states, as well as coping strategies to help patients modify negative emotions and reframe their mindset prior to undergoing a procedure, the authors noted.

The results were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) on Wednesday.