Background and Objective: surgery is a stressful experience and in open heart surgery, the patients are greatly faced with anxiety, which has been reduced by different approaches. This study aimed to investigate the effects of aromatherapy on anxiety level.

  Material and Methods: This blinded- randomized- controlled clinical trial was carried out on 90 patients divided into two groups of intervention and control. the patients of intervention group were asked to inhale two drops of lavender essential oil and those of control group two drops of distilled water poured on a gauze , for 20 minutes. In addition to measuring patients’ anxiety level by Spielberger questionnaire, we recorded their vital signs. Using SPSS 16 software, the data was described via mean, standard deviation and percent, and analyzed by using independent t-test, paired t-test, Chi Square and Covariance (0.05).

  Results: The mean age of intervention group was 50.49 ± 10.92 and control group was 50.13 ± 9.20. Anxiety score in intervention group was significantly decreased from 56.37±5.6 to 54.73±5.42 and in control group meaningfully reduced from 55.18±7.35 to 54.0±7.22 (p<0.05). The mean anxiety score in the intervention group was significantly higher than that of control group (p<0.05).

  Conclusion: Because anxiety reduction in aromatherapy group was more than control group it can be concluded that aromatherapy with lavender essential oil have significant effect in reducing anxiety and therefore can be used in clinical situations.