The interactive effect of preoperative consultation and operating room admission by a counselor on anxiety level and vital signs in patients undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting surgery. A clinical trial study.
Zandi Shirdel, Imani Behzad, Babak Manafi and 1 others
PMID 33047550WHAT IT FOUND
Structured preoperative counseling lowered anxiety before anesthesia in CABG patients, and having the same counselor admit them to the operating room lowered it further.
Heart rate, breathing rate and systolic blood pressure also fell; temperature and diastolic pressure did not.
Key findings
01Routine ward counseling plus two one-hour counseling sessions before CABG lowered pre-anesthesia anxiety compared with routine care alone.
02When the same counselor admitted the patient to the operating room and stayed until anesthesia, anxiety was lower than with counseling alone.
03The added counseling and counselor admission did not significantly change temperature or diastolic blood pressure.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The paper does not name a primary outcome, so the strongest positive result may not be the one the trial was designed to test. Participants were selected by convenience sampling from one hospital, so the sample may not represent other settings. Patients knew whether they received counseling and counselor-led admission, which can affect self-reported anxiety. Baseline temperature and diastolic blood pressure differed between groups before the intervention. Outcomes were measured only once, before anesthesia, not after surgery or during recovery. The paper states 90 patients were randomised, but some table totals use 89, so the number analysed is unclear.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that counselor-led admission prevents postoperative complications or replaces anxiety medication. The trial measured anxiety and vital signs only before anesthesia, used a single centre and convenience sample, and participants knew which support they received.