Pre-op phone consult doesn't cut anxiety before mohs surgery

(HealthDay)—Receiving a preoperative educational telephone call does not reduce anxiety or improve satisfaction for patients undergoing same-day office consultation and Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS), according to a study published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Joseph F. Sobanko, M.D., from the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia, and colleagues examined the effect of a preoperative educational telephone call on anxiety and satisfaction among 104 patients undergoing same-day office consultation and MMS. Participants were randomized to receive or not receive a telephone call during the week before surgery. Anxiety levels were rated immediately before and after the same-day office consultation and MMS. Satisfaction was also rated immediately after MMS.

The researchers found that regardless of whether patients had received a preoperative telephone call there were similar levels of increased anxiety and a high satisfaction for patients undergoing same-day office consultation and MMS.

"Preoperative education and counseling has uncertain benefits to anxiety and satisfaction of patients undergoing MMS," the authors write.