Aromatherapy Versus Gum Chewing on Preoperative Anxiety

The STAI takes less than 5 minutes to complete and can be scored in less than 2 minutes. There are 20 questions (I feel calm, secure, tense, strained, at ease, upset, am presently worrying over possible misfortunes, satisfied, frightened, uncomfortable, self-confident, nervous, jittery, indecisive, relaxed, content, worried, confused, steady and pleasant) where people rate their anxiety from one (not at all) to four (very much so), and scores range from 20 to 80. For example, low anxiety is 20 to 37, moderate anxiety is 38 to 44, and high anxiety is 45 to 80. Assessment will be done at two times; first time (before study intervention)15 minutes preoperatively in the holding area as a baseline with recoding systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rate. Second time; (after study intervention) in the operating room before induction of anesthesia

On arrival in the post anesthesia care unit, the patient is immediately evaluated for the presence of postoperative sore throat (POST); time 0 hour using a standardized scale. The severity of POST is graded on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 to 3; 0 being no sore throat, 1 being mild discomfort (complains only with questioning), 2 being moderate sore throat (complains on their own), and 3 being severe sore throat (change in voice, hoarseness, and throat pain). Evaluations will be recorded at 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 12 and 24 hours after surgery. Patients with score ≥2; will be given dexamethasone 4 mg and parecoxib 40 mg.

The post anesthesia care unit (PACU) nurses will assess and document postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) using a Verbal Descriptive Scale, which correlates to visual analog nausea scores, with an objective measure of severity: 0 = no PONV: patient reports no nausea and has had no emesis episodes; 1 = mild PONV: patient reports nausea but declines antiemetic treatment; 2 = moderate PONV: patient reports nausea and accepts antiemetic treatment; and 3 = severe PONV: nausea with any emesis episode (retching or vomiting). The score will be obtained at 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 12 and 24 hours after PACU arrival. In the PACU, ondansetron 4 mg IV will be given for score ≥2.