Hysterectomies are often linked to benign pathologies, but they are nevertheless the cause of anxiety and lead to significant physiological and psychological changes for these women. The uterus, as a symbol of femininity for women, has a unique meaning in relation to its reproductive function and its role in sexuality. Given this fact, does conversational hypnosis-used when a patient arrives at the hospital-have an impact on the pre- and postoperative anxiety of patients hospitalized for gynecological surgery in the form of a hysterectomy? To answer this question, a pilot study of comparative monocentric feasibility was performed with two parallel groups of 10 patients in 2014. The first group was received using ordinary practices, while the second group was received using techniques of conversational hypnosis. The main objective of this study was to estimate the effect of the use of conversational hypnosis upon reception compared to the use of the ordinary care protocol on perioperative anxiety upon reception, measured on the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) of anxiety for patients undergoing a hysterectomy associated with a benign pathology.
The results show that patients who received the techniques of conversational hypnosis upon reception to the hospital had clearly lower pre- and postoperative anxiety.
The results of this pilot feasibility study made it possible to perform follow-up research to confirm these first results in the context of a call for projects by SIRIC BRIO (Call for projects 2016: Site de Recherche Intégrée en Cancérologie - Bordeaux Recherche Intégrée en Oncologie). This research is currently underway to examine the impact of a formal preoperative hypnosis session on the perioperative anxiety of patients hospitalized for hysterectomy related to pelvic gynecologic cancer.