Somaye Pouy, - Ph.D Student in Nursing, Nursing and Midwifery Faculty, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

Background and Aim: Surgery is a stress that causes physiological reactions and psychological stress. If anxiety is unknown, prolonged anxiety can lead to stress that has harmful consequences for and delayed recovery. Acupuncture is one of the complementary medicine techniques used for various purposes including reducing anxiety in patients. The purpose of the present study is to systematically review the literature on the use of acupuncture on preoperative anxiety.Methods and Materials: A thorough search was performed using the databases of ProQuest, Scopus, Ovid, SID and PubMed from inception to 2019. Inclusion criteria include all clinical trial studies published in Persian and English in the designated timeframe. Exclusion criteria included all observational studies, letters to the editor and case studies. Information in these studies was extracted and analyzed using a designed form.Results: All extracted articles were designed and critically reviewed by two researchers. After the final review, 15 clinical trial articles were systematically reviewed. In all articles, the positive effect of acupuncture on preoperative anxiety was mentioned.Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that acupuncture leads to alleviating preoperative anxiety, but further studies are needed to precisely determine the appropriate acupuncture technique and its effective use compared to traditional treatments.

Acupuncture, Preoperative Anxiety, Complementary and Alternative Methods