Pain and Anxiety During Less Invasive Interventional Radiology Procedures

• This study of 53 outpatients undergoing less invasive interventional radiology (IR) procedures supports the presence of pain in a minority of adults during and after procedures.
• Patients may also experience anxiety before, during, and after these procedures.
• Nurses should assess for pain and anxiety before, during, and after these less invasive IR procedures (dialysis arteriovenous graft fistulogram or declotting procedures, chest port or arm port insertions, or tunneled dialysis catheter placements).
• In collaboration with their medical colleagues and considering the timing around the procedure, nurses can prevent or manage anxiety and pain in a manner tailored to individual patients.

The purpose of this study was to describe patient-reported pre-, intra-, and postprocedure pain and anxiety levels for adults undergoing less invasive interventional radiology procedures. Most of the 53 outpatients were males, English speakers (91%), aged between 40 and 70 years, and having a chest port or arm port insertion procedure. Pain levels greater than 4 (0-10 scale) were experienced by a minority of participants (before, n = 1; during, n = 7; and after, n = 3). Many patients undergoing arm port and chest port insertions (22-68%) experienced some level of preprocedural anxiety. This is the first study to document the presence of pain and anxiety levels of outpatients receiving dialysis arteriovenous graft fistulogram or declotting procedures, chest port or arm port insertions, or tunneled dialysis catheter placements. Radiology nurses need to be aware of the pain and anxiety experiences of these patients and should be assessing and managing these in collaboration with their medical colleagues.