Wide-Awake Local Anesthesia No-Tourniquet (WALANT) Procedures

Overview

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether a standardized preoperative educational video improves expectation management and the patient experience in adults undergoing Wide-Awake Local Anesthesia No Tourniquet (WALANT) hand surgery. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Does watching a preoperative educational video help patients better understand what to expect from their WALANT surgical experience? 2. Does watching the video impact anxiety scores, pain scores, overall satisfaction, and patient-reported functional outcomes? Researchers will compare patients who receive traditional preoperative counseling plus the educational video with patients who receive traditional preoperative counseling alone to determine whether the video improves the patient experience. Participants will: * Complete questionnaires about their expectations, anxiety, pain, hand function, and satisfaction before, during, and after their WALANT procedure. * If assigned to the video group, watch a standardized educational video explaining what to expect before, during, and after WALANT surgery. * Complete their final study questionnaires at their 2-week postoperative follow-up visit.

Wide-Awake Local Anesthesia No Tourniquet (WALANT) allows many hand and wrist procedures to be performed using a local anesthetic injection without the need for general anesthesia. Because patients remain awake throughout the procedure, adequate preoperative education and preparation are important for managing patient expectations and optimizing the overall surgical experience. This prospective randomized clinical trial will evaluate the effect of a standardized preoperative educational video on the experience of patients undergoing WALANT hand surgery. All participants will receive traditional preoperative counseling as part of their clinical care. Following enrollment, participants will be randomized to either traditional preoperative counseling alone or traditional preoperative counseling plus the standardized educational video. The educational video provides standardized information about the WALANT experience, including preparation for surgery, administration of the local anesthetic, the treatment room environment, sensations that may occur while awake during surgery, options for interacting with or observing the procedure, and expectations for postoperative recovery. The purpose of the video is to provide patients with a consistent understanding of what they may experience throughout the perioperative period. Participants will complete study questionnaires at enrollment, on the day of surgery, and at their routine 2-week post-operative follow-up visit. The study will compare the experiences of participants in the two groups to determine whether adding standardized video-based education to traditional counseling improves expectation management and other aspects of the WALANT patient experience.