Aims and objectives
To assess the impact of a short hypnotic session on postoperative anxiety and pain in major orthopaedic surgery.
Background
Despite specific information given before a scheduled paediatric surgery, perioperative anxiety can become important.
Design
Randomised Clinical Study.
Methods
The study is an open single‐centre randomised clinical study comparing a “control” group versus a “hypnosis” group receiving a short hypnosis pre‐induction session as additional experimental analgesic procedure. The primary endpoint was the postoperative anxiety, blindly assessed using a visual analogue scale.
Results
The study involved 120 children (age 10–18 years). The results showed no difference between control group versus hypnosis group. Twenty‐four hours after surgery (Day+1), the patient's anxiety score was not different between control and hypnosis groups (median [Q1–Q3]: 1 [0; 3] vs. 0 [0; 3], respectively, p = .17). Each group experienced a significant decrease in anxiety level between the day before surgery (Day−1) and the day after surgery (Day+1) (median ([Q1–Q3]) difference of the anxiety score: 2 [4; 0] and 2 [4; 0], respectively, p < .0001 in each group). The postoperative pain scores were low and not different between groups (median [Q1–Q3]: 2 [0; 3] in control group vs. 3 [1; 3] in hypnosis group, p = .57).
Conclusion
This randomised study on a short hypnosis session performed in the operating room prior to a major surgery showed no difference in postoperative anxiety and pain levels. The decrease in anxiety and pain levels may be due to the addition of nurse pre‐operative interviews and optimisation in communication in the operating room.
Relevance to clinical practice
As postoperative anxiety level was low in both control and hypnosis groups, nurse pre‐operative interviews and nurse training in hypnosis may contribute to the optimisation of global management and decrease the postoperative anxiety level.