This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Telephone consultation did not relieve patient anxiety prior to Mohs micrographic surgery
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Patients who received a preoperative telephone call in the week before undergoing same-day office consultation and Mohs micrographic surgery did not experience relieved anxiety or improved satisfaction compared with patients who did not receive a phone consultation, according to recently published study results.
Joseph F. Sobanko, MD, of the division of dermatologic surgery, University of Pennsylvania Health System, and colleagues studied 104 patients with skin cancer who were scheduled for same-day office consultation and Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS).
Fifty-one patients (56% men; mean age, 65.12 years) received an educational telephone call during the week before surgery, while 53 patients (51.92% men; mean age, 65.83 years) did not. The average telephone call time was 6.3 minutes.
Patients completed State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and an anxiety visual analog scale to rate anxiety levels immediately before and after the same-day office consultation and MMS. A Visit-Specific Patient Safety Questionnaire was completed by patients immediately after MMS to rate satisfaction.
Questionnaire results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between the two cohorts’ preoperative and postoperative anxiety levels. Preoperative state anxiety scores were higher than trait anxiety scores for both cohorts, while postoperative anxiety scores were lower than the preoperative scores.
Results of the satisfaction questionnaire showed that 87% of patients who did not receive a call and 84% of patients who received a call graded the visit as excellent.
“Patients undergoing MMS report high anxiety before surgery,” the researchers concluded. “A preoperative telephone call does not decrease anxiety or improve satisfaction for patients undergoing same-day office consultation and MMS. Future studies may determine if other interventions can more effectively reduce anxiety before MMS.” – by Bruce Thiel
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.