Background: Multimedia programmes relating to education and consents may be useful for decreasing anxiety during catheter-based repair in patients with congenitally malformed hearts.
Objective: Our study was aimed at evaluating the impact of multimedia protocols for education of a population of consecutive patients with congenitally malformed hearts prior to transcatheter repair.
Methods: Between September, 2006, and May, 2008, we enrolled 100 consecutive patients, with a mean age of 45 +/- 19 years, of whom 69 were female, for catheter-based repair of their congenitally malformed hearts. In the first 50 patients, we used a written form for informed consent sent to the patients 15 days before the procedure, coupled with a personal interview of 30 minutes. In the subsequent 50 patients, we used multimedia protocol for education, comprising a booklet of 4 pages containing a simple and brief explanation of the intervention, and a digital film of 4 minutes showing the transcatheter procedure with a commentary provided by the referring physician, prior to obtaining the signature for informed consent. We then compared the scores for anxiety, the pre-operative heart rate, the frequency of vaso-vagal episodes, and the need for conscious sedation between the two groups.
Results: Patients who underwent preconditioning using the multimedia programme were significantly less anxious, and had significantly lower heart rates. Vaso-vagal episodes were also significantly less in this group, with no episodes compared to 14% in those providing standard informed consent. Conscious sedation was needed more frequently in those providing standard informed consent.
Conclusion: Our brief study suggests that a comprehensive multimedia programme of preparation increases the tolerability, and decrease the emotional state, of adults about to undergo catheter-based interventions for congenital cardiac disease.