The Effectiveness of Non-Pharmacological Interventions on Preoperative and Postoperative Anxiety Among Patients Undergoing Abdominal Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Wai Lin William Tse, Po Yan Sin, Kai Chow Choi and 1 others
PMID 41709481WHAT IT FOUND
For adults having elective abdominal surgery, non-drug approaches lowered anxiety before and after surgery.
Preoperative counseling had the largest effect; relaxation exercises may reduce opioid use and speed bowel recovery, but no intervention shortened hospital stay.
Key findings
01The pooled effect on anxiety before surgery was large (SMD = -0.80; 95% CI = -1.10, -0.51), and the pooled effect on anxiety after surgery was also large (SMD = -0.80; 95% CI = -1.11, -0.49).
02Preoperative counseling had the largest pooled effects: SMD = -1.36 before surgery and SMD = -1.30 after surgery, each from two studies.
03Relaxation exercise was the only intervention with a significant effect on time to resume bowel movement, and no intervention showed a significant effect on length of hospital stay.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only elective abdominal surgery patients were studied, so the findings do not show what works for emergency surgery. Most included trials had some risk of bias, especially unclear allocation concealment, deviations from planned interventions, and anxiety measured without placebo controls. The pooled anxiety effects had high heterogeneity. The included studies varied a lot in interventions and measurement. The largest counseling effect was based on only two studies. Several secondary outcomes could not be pooled because timing, analgesic types, and reporting were inconsistent, and no total participant count was reported.
Declared interests
No funding or conflict-of-interest declaration is provided in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not apply these findings to emergency abdominal surgery patients. Every included trial studied elective surgery, so the review does not show that counseling or relaxation exercises work for emergency surgery.