Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Glasses on Surgical Fear and Anxiety in Patients Before Open-heart Surgery: A Double-blind Randomized Controlled Trial.

PURPOSE

Fear and anxiety in open-heart surgery patients can adversely affect their physiological well-being and recovery. Although virtual reality glasses (VR-G) have been advanced for preoperative anxiety management, their effectiveness specifically for open-heart surgery patients remains under-researched. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of watching a video through VR-G on surgical fear and anxiety levels of patients undergoing open-heart surgery.

DESIGN

A randomized controlled and double-blind study.

METHODS

In total, 90 patients were randomly assigned to the VR-G intervention group or control group. On the surgery morning, intervention group patients watched a 360-degree video with nature sounds through VR-G before being transferred to the operating theater. The surgical fear and anxiety levels of the patients were evaluated at three stages using the Surgical Fear Questionnaire and Visual Analog Scale-Anxiety: initial evaluation in the morning, second evaluation before being transferred, and third evaluation in the waiting room of the operating theater.

FINDINGS

The surgical fear level of the intervention group at the third evaluation was significantly lower than the control group (P < .000). There was no significant difference between the anxiety levels of the study groups (P > .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Watching a 360-degree video with nature sounds through VR-G is an effective intervention in reducing surgical fear levels of patients before undergoing open-heart surgery. Use of VR-G interventions may be a practical and fast-resulting nursing strategy to manage patients' surgical fear in the preoperative period.

REGISTRATION

NCT06165861.