QOL-12. Relaxation technique of imagery based story telling reduces manifestation of anxiety in children and adolescents undergoing brain tumor surgery

Children and adolescents undergoing surgical resection of brain tumors are prone to marked psychologic burden. Especially fear of surgery and its consequences like pain or neurologic sequelae is an important issue. Techniques of relaxation might reduce the intensity of the experienced anxiety and therefore might improve quality of life. In this study, we aimed at determining the effect of a standardized imagery story telling on experienced anxiety as quantified by the questionaire KAT III and cardiac frequency (CF) before and after intervention at two time points (before and after surgery). 12 patients (age: 6-17 years) undergoing brain tumor resection were included in the study. KAT III-scores and CF were determined and compared before and after interventions using a dependend t-test. Mean KAT III-score before first intervention was 0.23 (SD: 0.23), while it was 0.15 (SD: 0.21) after (p = 0.11). Mean KAT III-score before second intervention was 0.11 (SD: 0.13), after: 0.05 (SD: 0.9), p = 0.07. Mean CF before first intervention was 77.1 (SD: 10.3), after: 68,36 (SD: 6.8), p = 0.003. Mean CF before second intervention was 71.67 (SD: 9.57), after: 65 (SD: 8.72), p = 0.003. CF was significantly lower post-interventionally after the first and the second intervention. KAT III-score showed a trend to be lower post-interventionally after the second intervention. Hence, our study points at an efficacy of the deployed relaxation technique of imagery story telling in children and adolescents undergoing brain tumor surgery, although it was limited by a small patient number. Further studies with larger patient numbers and a comparison of randomized intervention vs. non-intervention groups are warranted.