Riassunto dello studio

Sixty patients scheduled for a hallux valgus surgery were randomized to receive either 10 minutes of pre-operative hypnosis using a virtual reality mask (n=30) or standard pre-operative care (n=30). The primary outcome of interest was the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) for anxiety. Secondary outcomes of interest included analgesic use and post-operative pain on a Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Patients who received virtual reality hypnosis reported significantly lower levels of anxiety, however, the difference vs. the control group was not clinically meaningful. Post-operative pain and the use of high-level analgesics (ketamine/morphine) was significantly lower in the hypnosis group. The results indicate a potential benefit of virtual reality hypnosis technologies for anxiety prior to operation; future studies are required to further investigate this topic and intervention.