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.