Behavioral Markers of Pre-operative Anxiety

Guidelines in anaesthesia recommend systematic preoperative anxiety management to prevent negative perioperative impact, including impaired memory of important instructions and high incidence of post-operative acute and chronic pain. Self-administered questionnaires linked to scales to assess anxiety in the preoperative setting are usual practice. Yet, they are time consuming and rely on patient willingness to comply with instructions, which is not always reliable. The effects of acute anxiety on behaviour are poorly explored in the preoperative context. Quantifying and characterizing behavioural patterns in anxious patients using an applied ethological approach may provide useful information for reliable, accurate and objective assessment before surgery.