Background: Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is a common and unpleasant experience for patients undergoing surgery which will delay healing and increase the cost. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between preoperative anxiety and postoperative nausea and vomiting.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive, analytical and correlation study was carried out with purposive sampling method on 110 patients of surgery unit of Besat hospital of Sanandaj in 2012. Spielberger questionnaire was used for assessing preoperative anxiety and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) to evaluate the severity of postoperative nausea and vomiting. The Spielberger questionnaire was completed the night before surgery and pain questionnaire was completed 3 hours after surgery. Data were analyzed by independent t-test, chi-square, Spearman and Pearson correlation tests using SPSS software version 18. P- Value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: 32 patients (29.1%) had severe state preoperative anxiety and 21 patients (19.1%) had severe trait preoperative anxiety and 14 patients (12.7%) had severe postoperative nausea and vomiting. There was a significant correlation between state anxiety (p=0.0001, r=0.60) and trait anxiety (p=0.0001, r=0.54) before surgery and postoperative nausea and vomiting.
Conclusion: There is a significant correlation between preoperative anxiety and postoperative nausea and vomiting.