SynthesisJournal of clinical nursing2025
Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Interventions for Perioperative Anxiety in Adults: A Systemic Review With Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of clinical nursing, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Perioperative virtual reality for pain and anxiety in adult hand and wrist surgery: a systematic review.JPRAS open · 2026Review
- Virtual reality versus companion-delivered therapeutic touch for reducing pain and anxiety during suturing: a randomized controlled trial.International journal of emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of psychological intervention based on implicit theory combined with virtual reality in patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysm receiving their first cerebral angiography after flow-diverter stent implantation.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSurgery often causes anxiety in adults due to various factors, including fear of anaesthesia and loss of independence. This anxiety can lead to higher anaesthesia requirements and more postoperative complications. Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly used as a non-pharmacological intervention to decrease perioperative anxiety. This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to evaluate the effectiveness of VR to decrease perioperative anxiety in adult patients undergoing elective surgery.
designA systematic review was conducted according to the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) method for systematic reviews of effectiveness. This paper complies with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) statement.
methodsFour electronic databases were searched from inception to July 2024. Inclusion criteria were experimental and quasi-experimental studies using VR preoperatively to reduce perioperative anxiety as the primary outcome, with no language or date restrictions. Two independent reviewers screened and critically appraised the studies using the JBI appraisal tool. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were synthesised, and data were pooled in a statistical meta-analysis. A random effects meta-analysis was used due to heterogeneity. For studies that could not be meta-analysed, a narrative synthesis was performed.
results11 studies met the inclusion criteria, including eight RCTs and three quasi-experimental studies. Overall, the majority of studies demonstrated that VR effectively reduced anxiety and increased patient satisfaction. The meta-analysis revealed a small, non-significant reduction in preoperative anxiety, favouring VR (Standardised Mean Difference - 0.29, 95% Confidence Interval - 0.83 to 0.24), with moderate heterogeneity (I
conclusionsThe evidence is limited to support the use of VR in reducing perioperative anxiety among adults. Larger sample sizes, high-quality RCTs and standardised anxiety measures are required to determine the effectiveness of VR on perioperative anxiety.
trial registrationPROSPERO CRD42020158529 https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=158529. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution was required to design or undertake this review.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.