Operation anxiety: what you need to know

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

The smell of hospitals evokes fear in many people. Hospital anxiety stems anywhere from the fear of the unknown to bad personal experiences with previous surgeries.

Experiencing anxiety before an operation is not surprising given that most people feel uncomfortable about “going under the knife.”

Even if an operation can restore your health or even save your life, it can still be difficult to keep calm about the surgery.

The emotional and mental state of the patient plays an important role in the preparation for surgery, says Aydin Gadirov, the Chief Anesthetist of the Azerbaijan Health Ministry.

“Many patients in Azerbaijan feel stress before surgery, and this is not good,” he said.

In Azerbaijan today, patients often have surgery upon arrival to the hospital, which does not provide an adequate amount of time to calm his/her nerves, according to the doctor.

Severe anxiety can cause unpleasant symptoms and stress, including, an increased heart rate or heart palpitations, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting etc.

“Sometimes a patient worries before the operation to the extent that his/her blood pressure increases. In this case, we are obliged to cancel the operation,” he said.

Emotions have a direct effect on stress hormones. The patient's emotional response to surgery can therefore alter the effects of the anesthetic.

“When the patient is under stress, the effect of anesthesia decreases, so it is necessary to introduce an additional dose of anesthesia to the patient,” he stressed.

In order to avoid these unpleasant situations, it is necessary to place a patient in a hospital for at least one day prior to surgery, the anesthesiologist explained.

“During this time, to protect the patient from stress, it is necessary to make certain injections for relaxation. This is the law of anesthesiology,” Gadirov noted.

Earlier in March, an Azerbaijani student died during a rhinoplasty operation in one of Azerbaijan’s private hospitals. The autopsy revealed anesthesia to be the cause of death.

According to anesthetist Javid Pashayev, one of the major problems in some of the private clinics is that patients lay down on the operating table on the day they arrive at the hospital.

He believes that it should be obligatory for all patients to be evaluated on nervous system and organ function prior to surgery. Only after this, doctors can start the operation.

If you are expected to have surgery in the near future, give yourself adequate time to calm your nerves before entering the hospital.