Introduction
Anxiety, anxiety
Anxiety experienced by patients before a surgical intervention is a well-documented phenomenon, occurring in up to 60% to 80% of patients, and it can lead to alterations in cognitive and physiologic function.There is strong evidence that preoperative educational interventions can reduce patient perioperative anxiety.Advances in the preparation and delivery of patient care and education have begun to incorporate augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). AR has been defined as the superimposition of interactable virtual objects onto a physical environment in space.AR and VR have shown therapeutic benefits in psychology,While AR and VR have been used to improve patient education about the specifics of their procedure, to our knowledge, no studies have been performed that examine AR’s ability to affect patient anxiety and experience in the outpatient surgical setting by providing the patient a step-by-step walkthrough of their day of surgery. We hypothesize that by applying the AR to perioperative patient education and experience, we can decrease perioperative patient anxiety and improve patient experience and satisfaction.