A study in Istanbul looked at whether a special type of pre-surgery education could help people who were about to get a colostomy or ileostomy. The education included hands-on training with a wearable dummy stoma device. Researchers compared 78 patients who got this training to patients who received standard care.
The study found that patients who used the dummy stoma before surgery had significantly lower anxiety when they first saw their real stoma after the operation. They also reported feeling better adjusted to their stoma and more confident in their ability to care for it at discharge and at follow-up visits 3 and 6 weeks later.
It's important to be cautious about these results. The study was relatively small and did not report how large the benefits were or whether there were any safety concerns. The training was also tested in one specific setting, so it's unclear if it would work the same way everywhere. While this approach shows promise for reducing anxiety before a major surgery, more research is needed to confirm these findings.