Assessment of Knowledge of General and Local Anesthesia among Patients Undergoing Elective Surgery

Adequate knowledge of anesthesia and anesthesiologists can reduce patient anxiety. However, patients in developing countries are known to have relatively lesser knowledge and awareness regarding anesthesia. This study aims to evaluate the knowledge of patients referred for elective surgery regarding regional and general anesthesia and related factors.

In this descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study, 370 subjects were evaluated by a simple non-random sampling method. The researcher constructed a questionnaire study tool to assess demographic variables, backgrounds, and patients' level of awareness. After the collection, data were entered into the SPSS 21 software and were analyzed using chi-square, variance analysis and independent t-test.

The mean age of our patients was 43.09±17.79 years and the mean score of knowledge regarding general and local anesthesia was 3.62±1.35 and 2.65±1.53, respectively. In this study, patients' awareness about general and local anesthesia had a significant association with female gender, age group 30-40 years, postgraduate education, government job previous local anesthesia, trust in the physician, having a history of surgery and willingness to visit the anesthesiologist before the surgery. In addition, patients who had eyes, nose and throat surgeries, and their source of information was limited, had greater scores, p<0.005. Individuals were more aware of common side effects of local anesthesia than those of general anesthesia. However, over half of the patients preferred general anesthesia due to fear of live experience and sound during surgery.

Basedon the results of the study, the awareness of patients about general anesthesia was greater than regional anesthesia. Overall, increasing awareness by strengthening the level of confidence and trust in anesthesiologists can lead to better postoperative outcomes and reduce patients’ anxiety levels.