Digital patient education tools as a perioperative strategy to reduce anxiety and anaesthetic complications: a scoping review

Introduction: Perioperative anxiety is highly prevalent and is consistently associated with unfavourable clinical outcomes, increased resource utilisation, and a suboptimal surgical experience. Although patient education constitutes a fundamental component of perioperative anaesthetic care, traditional educational models are limited by issues related to standardisation, time constraints, and access. In this context, digital patient education tools have emerged as a promising strategy to optimise perioperative preparation; however, the available evidence regarding their effectiveness remains fragmented and heterogeneous, particularly with respect to their impact on anaesthetic complications. Methodology: A scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the methodological recommendations of the Joanna Briggs Institute and reported following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A systematic search will be performed in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect, including studies published between 2015 and 2025 in English or Spanish. Experimental and observational studies evaluating digital patient education tools in the perioperative period will be considered. Study selection and data extraction will be carried out independently by pairs of reviewers, and the findings will be synthesised through descriptive and narrative analysis. Expected results: It is expected that a wide range of digital educational tools will be identified, with a predominance of interventions implemented in the preoperative phase and marked heterogeneity in formats, levels of interactivity, and assessed outcomes. Relatively consistent evidence regarding the reduction of perioperative anxiety is anticipated, whereas the evaluation of objective anaesthetic complications is likely to be limited. This review will enable the identification of relevant methodological gaps and priority areas for future research, as well as inform the clinical implementation of digital education strategies in perioperative anaesthesiology.