The effect of aromatherapy applied to patients during urodynamic procedure on anxiety and serum cortisol levels

This study aimed to determine the effect of aromatherapy applied to patients during urodynamic procedure on their anxiety and serum cortisol levels. The sample of this single-center, prospective, two-arm (1:1), randomized controlled clinical trial consisted of 98 patients who presented to the urology outpatient clinic of a university hospital and underwent urodynamic procedure between January and July 2022. The patients were allocated to the experimental and control groups through randomization. In the study, lavender aromatherapy was applied during the urodynamic procedure to the experimental group (n=49), while the control group (n=49) received routine procedure. The anxiety level of the patients before and after the urodynamic procedure was assessed using the State Anxiety Inventory (SAI). Physiological response to anxiety was evaluated through systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2) value, and serum cortisol level. All measurements were performed before and after urodynamic procedure. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's chi-square test, paired and independent t-tests were used for data analysis. In the study, it was found that the mean SAI scores of both experimental and control groups decreased significantly after the urodynamic procedure compared to before the procedure (p<0.05). The mean SAI score of the experimental group after the procedure was significantly lower than that of the control group (p<0.05). In the experimental group, among the physiological responses, only HR significantly decreased after the urodynamic procedure compared to before the procedure, whereas in the control group, SBP and RR significantly increased and HR significantly decreased (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of mean SBP, DBP, HR, and RR before and after the urodynamic procedure (p>0.05). Only after the procedure, the mean SpO2 value of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group (p<0.05). The study found that the serum cortisol level significantly decreased in the experimental group after the urodynamic procedure compared to before the procedure (p<0.05), but there was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups when compared before and after the procedure (p>0.05). The study revealed that aromatherapy reduced anxiety and increased SpO2 value in patients undergoing urodynamic procedure. Additionally, it was observed that aromatherapy decreased serum cortisol level and positively influenced other physiological responses (SBP, DBP, HR, RR) of the patients, although this effect was not statistically significant. These findings indicate that nurses can use aromatherapy to reduce anxiety in urodynamic patients, and further multicenter studies on this topic are recommended.