Guided Imagery Exercise for Surgical Fear and Perioperative Comfort in TURP Patients (Guided Imagery)

April 20, 2026 updated by: Cagla Toprak, Atlas University

The Effect of Guided Imagery Exercises on Surgical Anxiety and Perioperative Comfort in Patients Undergoing Transurethral Prostate Resection:

Objective: This randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the impact of guided imagery exercises on surgical fear and perioperative comfort in patients undergoing Transurethral Resection of the Prostate (TURP).

Background: Transurethral Resection of the Prostate (TURP) remains the gold standard surgical treatment for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH). Despite its efficacy, a significant majority of patients (60-80%) experience substantial surgical fear, which can negatively affect their recovery and perioperative comfort. Guided imagery is a non-pharmacological, cognitive-behavioral technique that utilizes mental visualization to activate the mind-body connection, reduce sympathetic activity, and promote relaxation.

Methods: Grounded in Kolcaba's Comfort Theory, this study investigates the relationship between guided imagery and the multi-dimensional aspects of patient comfort (physical, psycho-spiritual, environmental, and socio-cultural). The intervention group will receive structured guided imagery sessions designed to reduce physiological stress responses and enhance emotional regulation, while the control group will receive standard care.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

70

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • TUR-T surgery performed on Patients over 18 years of age

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients undergoing emergency surgery Patients under 8 years of age

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control group
Experimental: Guided Imagery group
Other: Guided Imagery
The first session will include information on preoperative procedures, while the second and third sessions will cover postoperative procedures. Guided imagery exercises will be administered using wireless over-ear headphones in a total of three sessions: once before surgery, once on the first day after surgery, and once on the second day after surgery.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
surgical fear
Time Frame: Preoperative period, postoperative days 1 and 2.
The scale was developed by Burton et al. in 2018. The Turkish validity and reliability study was conducted by Topçu et al. (2023). The scale has four sub-dimensions: health-related anxieties (items 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13), recovery-related anxieties (items 14, 15, 16, and 17), surgical procedure-related anxieties (items 1, 2, 4, and 8), and invasive procedure-related anxieties (items 3, 5, and 6). The items are scored as follows: 0 = "I am not anxious at all", 1 = "I am slightly anxious", 2 = "I am somewhat anxious", 3 = "I am very anxious", and 4 = "I am extremely anxious". The scale contains a total of 17 items. There are no reversed items in the scale. Total and subscale total scores are calculated by summing the total scores of the items they contain. The lowest possible score on the scale is 0 and the highest is 68. The scale has no cutoff point, and higher scores indicate higher levels of anxiety in patients.
Preoperative period, postoperative days 1 and 2.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The Surgical Recovery Scale
Time Frame: pre-surgery, post-operative day 1, day 2
The Surgical Recovery Scale reliably measures functional patient recovery after surgery. The scale was developed by Paddison et al. (2011) to measure postoperative recovery. The Turkish validity and reliability study was conducted by Yılmaz and Yayla (2025). The scale consists of two sub-dimensions: "Impact on energy" and "Impact on daily activities." For the first sub-dimension, responses such as "Not exactly", "Almost never", "Sometimes", "Quite often", "Very often", and "Always" are expected, while for the second sub-dimension, these responses are "Not exactly", "Occasionally", "Less than normal", "Almost as often as usual", "As often as usual", and "None". The scale consists of 13 items; items 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the first 8 items belonging to the first dimension are reverse Likert-type, and the second sub-dimension consists of the last 5 items. Scores obtained from the scale range from 8 to 73. An increase in the scores obtained from the scale indicates that the improvement is a
pre-surgery, post-operative day 1, day 2

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Atlas University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

  • Ramesh, C., Nayak, B. S., & Pai, V. B. (2020). Guided imagery on anxiety, stress, and comfort level among patients undergoing surgery: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29(9-10), 1696-1705.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

April 20, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

May 30, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

June 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 15, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 20, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

April 27, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 27, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 20, 2026

Last Verified

April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 18.11.2025

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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