The relationship of anxiety to development of postoperative delirium.

1. Although patients who experience unplanned, unanticipated surgery were not more anxiety prone than patients undergoing planned surgery, they did experience higher levels of state anxiety and a higher incidence of delirium postoperatively. 2. Nurses should be alert to an increased risk of negative outcomes among patients with little or no opportunity for psychological preparation prior to surgery, and especially among patients undergoing unanticipated orthopedic surgery. 3. State anxiety scores among patients undergoing unplanned surgery declined postoperatively rather than rose. This indicates that the critical period for nursing intervention may be in the preoperative period. 4. Delirium is not associated with anxiety in a direct or linear way. Patients who experience delirium postoperatively do not experience greater state anxiety, nor are they more anxiety prone than patients who do not exhibit delirium.