1 | INTRODUCTION
Anxiety is a human response to situations of threat, a psychological reaction to stress factors. Surgery may create anxiety for patients during the preoperative and postoperative period. The anticipation of pain, separation from family, loss of independence, fear of surgical procedures and the anaesthesia, the possibility of changes in body image and death are the causes of anxiety.1, 2 Dermatologic interventions are one of the day surgeries that enable patients to be operated and discharged from the hospital on the same day. Like other surgical procedures, dermatologic surgery may create anxiety and stress for patients during the preoperative and postoperative period.
Nail surgery is a part of dermatologic surgery which can be very painful and causes a lot of anxiety by patients. There are many factors that afffecting patient’s anxiety. The anaesthesia of the nail with a needle, the pain that may arise from the failure of anaesthesia, and the problems that may occur after the nail avulsion are the causes of the anxiety of the patient. Self-guided imagery, listening to music and some medications are the suggested options to reduce anxiety in surgical procedures. 3-5 In addition, since local anaesthesia with a needle is often a source of fear, it is reported that needle-free anaesthesia can be used in needle-phobic patients 6.
In previous studies about nail surgery, pain scores were not evaluated, and besides anxiety was often evaluated in the presurgical period, not during and after surgery. In addition, since the correlation between the quality of life, pain score and anxiety score was not evaluated in other studies, our study offers a new perspective in this respect.
The aim of this study is to determine the anxiety and pain of the patients before, during and after nail surgery and to determine the effects on their lives. We also aimed to increase the awareness of medical doctors about surgical anxiety and pain of the patients, to change attitudes and behaviours towards patients, and taking precautions for anxiety and pain.