Listening to music ‘makes surgery less stressful’
31 Mar, BBC
Playing music to patients while they go under the knife reduces their
anxiety and may even aid healing, surgeons say.Easy listening tracks and
chart hits can have a calming effect on patients who are awake for
surgery under local anaesthetic, a team at the John Radcliffe Hospital
in Oxford found.Listening to the radio also helped.
Their small study, published in Annals of the Royal College of
Surgeons, tracked the progress of 96 patients having minor surgery at
the hospital.
Half of the patients were played music - broadcast by a radio station
or from a selection of tunes on a CD chosen by the surgical staff -
while the other half had their operation under the usual 'hushed'
conditions.
After the surgery was completed the patients, some elective and some
emergency cases, were asked to rate how anxious they had felt during the
operation.
The group played music scored about a third less on anxiety levels
and were also noted to have more relaxed breathing patterns during the
surgery - an average of 11 breaths per minute compared to 13 breaths per
minute in the non-music group.
This ties in with past studies have which have shown music may help
ease pain and can help hospital patients on ventilators breathe more
easily.Experts know that stress can have a negative impact on surgical
outcomes and prolong the healing process.Hazim Sadideen, a plastic
surgical registrar who led the study, said more work was now needed to
establish whether the use of music in operating theatres should become
standard practice.
"Undergoing surgery can be a stressful experience for patients and
finding ways of making them more comfortable should be our goal as
clinicians."
There are also good medical reasons - calmer patients may cope better
with pain and recover quicker."Music might also lead to a happier,
calmer surgeons and theatre staff, the researchers suggest.
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