Feasibility and Usefulness of Self-Hypnosis in Patients Undergoing Double-Lung Transplantation During the Pre- and Postoperative Periods: A Randomized Study

Objective: Hypnosis can reduce pain and anxiety in surgical patients. This study aimed to demonstrate that implementing self-hypnosis in the setting of lung transplantation could improve patients' pain and quality of life.

Design: A randomized, single-center study.

Setting: Foch University Hospital, Suresnes, France.

Participants: The participants were patients aged 15 years or older who needed a double-lung transplant. Patients were excluded if they participated in only 1 learning self-hypnosis session before transplantation.

Interventions: Patients were included at the time of their final evaluation before inscription on the waiting list. They were taught self-hypnosis at this time and were asked to perform it by themselves before and after transplantation, as frequently as possible.

Measurements and main results: The main outcome of the study was self-reported pain 1 month after lung transplantation. Secondary outcomes were self-reported pain, anxiety, coping, catastrophism, and self-reported quality of life evaluated at their registration, 7 days and 1 and 4 months after the transplantation. Seventy-eight patients were included, but only 28 patients in the control group and 33 in the self-hypnosis group were evaluated at the fourth postoperative month. Practice of self-hypnosis was high before transplantation (76.6%), lower after, from 32.3% in the intensive care unit to 51.6% during the last 3 months of the study. Group-time interactions were not statistically significant whatever the concerned outcome, especially pain score at 1 month (p = 0.16).

Conclusion: Implementation of self-hypnosis is possible, but the study failed to demonstrate an improvement in patients' experience, perhaps due to the variable compliance with the technique.