Preoperative anxiety and postoperative adverse events: a narrative overview

Abstract Patients awaiting surgical procedures often experience obvious anxiety due to discomfort and uncertain events, which is one of the most common clinical manifestations in perioperative patients. Numerous studies have confirmed that preoperative anxiety is closely related to the occurrence of postoperative adverse events, such as insomnia, pain, nausea and vomiting and neurocognitive dysfunction. Appropriate intervention or treatment for preoperative anxiety may contribute to reducing the incidence of postoperative adverse events. Although people have long known about the negative effects of preoperative anxiety and have taken certain measures, the underlying mechanism has yet to be fully elucidated. In this paper, we focus on several typical postoperative adverse events that are, particularly concerning to anesthesiologists, review their relationships with preoperative anxiety, describe the intervention strategies and provide a certain summary and outlook.