Lumbar puncture patient video increases knowledge and reduces uncertainty: An RCT

Background: Patients often perceive a lumbar puncture (LP) as an invasive procedure. We aimed to evaluate the impact of a 3-minute educational animation-video explaining the LP procedure, on patients’ knowledge, uncertainty, anxiety, and post-LP complications. Methods: We included 203 newly referred memory clinic patients, who were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) home viewing of the video, (2) clinic viewing of the video, or (3) control condition (care as usual). Participants completed questionnaires measuring knowledge as information recall, uncertainty, anxiety, and post-LP complications, the latter when patients underwent an LP procedure (n = 145). Results: Viewing the video increased information recall for both home (P <.001), and clinic viewers (P <.001) compared to controls. Levels of uncertainty decreased after viewing (P_{for interaction}=.044), particularly for clinic viewers. Viewing the video or not did not affect anxiety and post-LP complications. Discussion: Preparing individuals for an LP by means of an educational video can help to increase knowledge about the procedure and reduce feelings of uncertainty.