AI Article Synopsis
- Pre-operative anxiety is common in children and can lead to negative results, prompting a study to evaluate the efficacy of virtual reality exposure (VRE) as a tool to reduce this anxiety compared to standard care.
- The study involved 200 children aged 4 to 12 undergoing elective surgery, and while VRE did not show significant benefits in reducing anxiety, pain, or emergence delirium, it did lead to a lower need for rescue pain medication post-surgery for those undergoing adenoidectomy/tonsillectomy.
- Overall, the findings suggest that while VRE may not alleviate anxiety or related issues during surgery, it can be effective in reducing postoperative pain management needs for certain procedures.
Article Abstract
Background: Pre-operative anxiety in children is very common and is associated with adverse outcomes.
Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate if virtual reality exposure (VRE) as a preparation tool for elective day care surgery in children is associated with lower levels of anxiety, pain and emergence delirium compared with a control group receiving care as usual (CAU).
Design: A randomised controlled single-blind trial.
Setting: A single university children's hospital in the Netherlands from March 2017 to October 2018.
Patients: Two-hundred children, 4 to 12 years old, undergoing elective day care surgery under general anaesthesia.
Intervention: On the day of surgery, children receiving VRE were exposed to a realistic child-friendly immersive virtual version of the operating theatre, so that they could get accustomed to the environment and general anaesthesia procedures.
Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome was anxiety during induction of anaesthesia (modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale, mYPAS). Secondary outcomes were self-reported anxiety, self-reported and observed pain, emergence delirium, need for rescue analgesia (morphine) and parental anxiety.
Results: A total of 191 children were included in the analysis. During induction of anaesthesia, mYPAS levels (median [IQR] were similar in VRE, 40.0 [28.3 to 58.3] and CAU, 38.3 [28.3 to 53.3]; P = 0.862). No differences between groups were found in self-reported anxiety, pain, emergence delirium or parental anxiety. However, after adenoidectomy/tonsillectomy, children in the VRE condition needed rescue analgesia significantly less often (55.0%) than in the CAU condition (95.7%) (P = 0.002).
Conclusion: In children undergoing elective day care surgery, VRE did not have a beneficial effect on anxiety, pain, emergence delirium or parental anxiety. However, after more painful surgery, children in the VRE group needed rescue analgesia significantly less often, a clinically important finding because of the side effects associated with analgesic drugs. Options for future research are to include children with higher levels of anxiety and pain and to examine the timing and duration of VRE.
Trial Registration: Netherlands Trial Registry: NTR6116.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6738544 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/EJA.0000000000001059 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Temporal Dynamics of Affective Scene Processing in the Healthy Adult Human Brain.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev
January 2025
Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany. Electronic address:
Understanding how the brain distinguishes emotional from neutral scenes is crucial for advancing brain-computer interfaces, enabling real-time emotion detection for faster, more effective responses, and improving treatments for emotional disorders like depression and anxiety. However, inconsistent research findings have arisen from differences in study settings, such as variations in the time windows, brain regions, and emotion categories examined across studies. This review sought to compile the existing literature on the timing at which the adult brain differentiates basic affective from neutral scenes in less than one second, as previous studies have consistently shown that the brain can begin recognizing emotions within just a few milliseconds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEffect of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation in hemodialysis patients: A randomized controlled trial.
Ther Apher Dial
January 2025
Department of Nephrology, The Third Clinical Medical College of China Three Gorges University, Sinopharm Gezhouba Central Hospital, Yichang, China.
Introduction: Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) has shown potential in neurological, autoimmune, and cardiovascular disorders, but its effects on HD patients remain unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tVNS in HD patients.
Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled clinical trial on patients receiving HD ≥6 months.
Efficacy of small-diameter core decompression with platelet-rich plasma in early osteonecrosis of the femoral head: a retrospective study.
BMC Musculoskelet Disord
January 2025
Department of Orthopedics and Orthopedic Research Institute, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China.
Background: Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is a challenging condition, primarily affecting young and middle-aged individuals, which results in hip dysfunction and, ultimately, femoral head collapse. However, the comparative effectiveness of joint-preserving procedures, particularly in the early stages of ONFH (ARCO stage I or II), remains inconclusive. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of a novel technique called small-diameter core decompression (CD) combined with platelet-rich plasma (PRP), for the treatment of early-stage ONFH.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAssessing the relationship between wrist synovitis and anxiety: a study using clinical statistics and Mendelian randomization analysis.
J Orthop Surg Res
January 2025
Department of Sports Medicine, Wuxi 9th People's Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China.
Background: Wrist synovitis often leads to persistent pain, swelling, and limited mobility, causing significant functional impairment and psychological distress, including anxiety. Although arthroscopic synovectomy can alleviate physical symptoms, whether it also improves anxiety and the causal relationship between synovitis and anxiety remains unclear.
Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 44 patients diagnosed with wrist synovitis who underwent arthroscopic synovectomy.
Clustering of > 145,000 symptom logs reveals distinct pre, peri, and menopausal phenotypes.
Sci Rep
January 2025
Opensci, LLC, Tucson, AZ, 85750, USA.
The transition to menopause is associated with disappearance of menstrual cycle symptoms and emergence of vasomotor symptoms. Although menopausal women report a variety of additional symptoms, it remains unclear which emerge prior to menopause, which occur in predictable clusters, how clusters change across the menopausal transition, or if distinct phenotypes are present within each life stage. We present an analysis of symptoms in premenopausal to menopausal women using the MenoLife app, which includes 4789 individuals (23% premenopausal, 29% perimenopausal, 48% menopausal) and 147,501 symptom logs (19% premenopausal, 39% perimenopausal, 42% menopausal).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!