INTRODUCTION: Pediatric researches show an association between preoperative anxiety and emergency delirium or post-anesthetic agitation. This association has not been established in adults. OBJECTIVE: Establish an association between preoperative anxiety, alcohol dependence and post-anesthetic agitation in an adult patients undergoing general anesthesia in a third-level health institution in Bogotá, Colombia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prospective cohort study. Inclusion criteria: patients older than 18 years ASA I and ASA II who attended a third level hospital for scheduled surgery, whose procedure was performed under general anesthesia. Anxiety was measured with the Amsterdam APAIS scale. The outcome was measured with the Richmond Scale. RESULTS: 132 patients were studied. The incidence of preoperative anxiety was 38.9% when the cut-off point of APAIS was 11. The frequency of patients with alcohol abuse (CAGE ≥2) was 24.2% and 16.7% reported having used some psychoactive substance at some time of the life. From the emergence of anesthesia, it was found that 9% of patients had post-anesthetic agitation, 11% had hypoactive emergency and the rest normal. It wasn’t found an association between preoperative anxiety, alcohol dependence and post-anesthetic agitation in adult patients undergoing general anesthesia. An association with the post anesthetic agitation was found between gender male OR 5.8, psychoactive substance consumption OR 3.7 and use of diclofenac OR 11.3. CONCLUSIONS: It wasn’t found an association between preoperative anxiety, alcohol dependence and post-anesthetic agitation in adult patients undergoing general anesthesia.
