Anesthesiology News reports on study findings which showed preoperative anxiety, measured by using the modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale (mYPAS), can predict rates of emergence delirium. Emergence delirium refers to a variety of behavioral disturbances commonly observed in children following emergence from anesthesia.

Anesthesiology News spoke to Stavros G. Memtsoudis, MD, PhD, MBA, anesthesiologist at HSS, who was not involved in the study, about the discovered correlation. Dr. Memtsoudis cited this presents opportunities to research other anxiety-related links. “It would be interesting to see if the authors can expand their research to investigate the association of anxiety and postoperative pain,” noted Dr. Memtsoudis. “I would not be surprised if it did,” he concluded.

This article appeared in print in the May 2019 edition.