Virtual Reality Operating Room Tour and Preoperative Anxiety in Spinal Surgery Patients Experimental: "VR Operating Room Tour" - Participants Viewed a Five-minute Virtual Reality Video of Preoperative Preparation and the Operating Room the Night Before Surgery, Facilitated by a Nurse.

Overview

This randomised controlled trial evaluated whether a nurse-facilitated virtual reality (VR) tour of the operating room reduces preoperative anxiety in adults awaiting lumbar disc herniation surgery.

Preoperative anxiety is common among surgical patients and, when unaddressed, may be associated with greater anaesthetic requirements, more postoperative pain, and slower recovery. Standard preoperative information alone is often insufficient to relieve it, and evidence for a structured VR operating room tour in adult spinal surgery is limited. Fifty-eight adults scheduled for elective lumbar disc herniation surgery at a university training and research hospital were randomly assigned in equal numbers to an intervention group or a control group. The night before surgery, the intervention group viewed an approximately five-minute VR video, facilitated by the nurse-researcher, showing preoperative preparation, transfer to and entry into the operating theatre, the waiting area, the operating room, and the postoperative care area; the video contained no images of surgical procedures. The control group received standard preoperative care. Surgical anxiety was measured before and after the intervention using the Surgical Anxiety Scale for Adult Patients. The study aimed to determine whether a brief, low-cost, nurse-delivered VR operating room tour is an effective and feasible way to lower preoperative anxiety and could be incorporated into routine perioperative nursing care.

Conditions