Preoperative anxiety in oral-maxillofacial surgery and related risk factors: A retrospective study

Objective: Anxiety is a temporary emotional state of tension, nervousness, fear and high autonomic nervous system activity. We aimed to investigate the anxiety status of patients before maxillofacial surgery and to analyse the relationship between anxiety and demographical/clinical data. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, we reviwed the files of 333 patients aged 16-60 years, who were scheduled for oral-maxillofacial surgery. The patients were interviewed before the surgery to determine their levels of preoperative anxiety using the Beck anxiety inventory. Demographic information was collected using a structured questionnaire [age, sex, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score, civil status, educational status, having major/ minor surgery, informed about the surgery, history of previous surgery, job status, economic status, health insurance and having a child in need of care]. The levels of anxiety were allocated into 3 groups: 0 to 15, low to mild anxiety; 16 to 25, moderate anxiety and 26 to 63, severe anxiety. Multivariate conditional regression modelling was used to determine independent predictors of preoperative anxiety and to analyse the relationship between anxiety and risk factors. Results: High preoperative anxiety was associated with female gender [odds ratio (OR): 2.29], ASA-II (OR: 1.38), more than 12 years of education (OR: 1.68), major surgery (OR: 1.52), being a housewife (OR: 1.76), being single (OR: 1.93), absence of health insurance (OR: 2.01) and having a child in need of care (OR: 2.18). Previous surgery (OR: 0.61) and being informed about the surgery (OR: 0.58) were associated with a lower risk for preoperative anxiety. Conclusion: It is highly important in surgical practice to carefully observe patients and provide an appropriate preoperative anxiety management in order to avoid the bothersome intra- and postoperative results of preoperative anxiety.