Radiologic Intervention: Patient Anxiety, Fear of Pain, Understanding of the Procedure and Satisfaction with the Medication-A Prospective Study

Kim, Tae Hoon

Abstract

PURPOSE
I wanted to prospectively assess patients' anxiety, their understanding of the procedure being performed, the perception of the pain level and the satisfaction with the administered medication for interventional procedures.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
I investigated 78 patients before and after they underwent 93 interventional procedures. The patients responded to a series of questions by using a visual analogue scale (VAS). Two different procedures were performed on 15 patients at different times. Based on the patient's body weight, a combination of sedative and analgesic was intravenously administered.
RESULTS
The mean anxiety VAS score for the interventional procedures was about 5.3. The mean anxiety score of the experienced patients was about 3.8 and that of the inexperienced patients was about 5.5 (p < .001). The mean score for the understanding of the procedure, which was recorded both before and after the procedure, was about 4.1 and 7.1, respectively. The mean scores for the understanding of the procedure were about 7.0 in the experienced patients and about 3.6 in the inexperienced patients (p< .001). The anticipated level of pain recorded before the procedure was about 5.2 and the level of pain during the procedure was 2.9, and the latter was recorded after the procedure (p< .001). The level of satisfaction with the medication provided during the procedure was about 8.0 on the VAS score.
CONCLUSION
The patients had a moderate amount of anxiety about the interventional procedures. Most patients had a high level of satisfaction with the medication despite the amount of pain they experienced during the procedure. The patients who were experienced with a procedure tended to have less anxiety and anticipated pain, and they had a greater understanding of the procedure.