Perioperative anxiety is a of feeling of fear, uneasiness after operation with a high incidence. It may lead to increased dosage of anesthetics, postoperative pain, nausea, vomiting, and other complications. Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) is a non‑invasive and safe acupoint treatment method based on the combination of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture theory. Studies have confirmed that TEAS has a positive effect on relieving anxiety, postoperative nausea and vomiting, and postoperative pain, but the relevant parameters have not been uniformly determined. This article describes the hazards of perioperative anxiety and its self‑assessment scale, the clinical application of TEAS to relieve anxiety, the selection of relevant parameters, and the related mechanisms. TEAS has a positive impact on relieving patients' perioperative anxiety, but its therapeutic parameters need a further study to maximize its therapeutic effects.