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Music During Surgery May
Ease Patients' Recovery
Excerpt
By Merritt
McKinney, Reuters Health
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)
- Hearing soothing music and encouraging words while under anesthesia
may ease patients' recovery after surgery, results of a Swedish
study suggest.
Women undergoing hysterectomies who listened to relaxing music
and sounds of ocean waves while under general anesthesia experienced
less pain, were less fatigued when released from the hospital,
and were able to sit up sooner after their operation than patients
who did not listen to music, researchers report.
And women who listened to music and encouraging words during
the operation needed less pain medication immediately after surgery
and were also less likely to feel tired when they went home from
the hospital, according to findings published in a recent issue
of the journal Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica.
Even though people are unconscious when under general anesthesia,
research suggests that the brain may be more aware of what happens
during surgery than previously thought. Because of this so-called
intra-operative awareness, patients may overhear the remarks of
doctors and nurses, which could lead to anxiety and dissatisfaction
after surgery, Dr. Ulrica Nilsson at Orebro Medical Center Hospital
in Sweden and colleagues report.
To protect patients from inappropriate or misinterpreted comments
overheard during surgery, ``taped soothing music or music in combination
with therapeutic suggestions could be provided to all patients
undergoing surgery under general anesthesia,'' Nilsson told Reuters
Health.
``It is a noninvasive and inexpensive intervention that can improve
some postoperative outcomes such as pain and fatigue,'' she said.
Nilsson's team based their conclusions on a study of 90 women
who were randomly assigned to listen to music, a combination of
music and therapeutic words or ordinary sounds of the operating
room during a hysterectomy.
Although music and therapeutic suggestions provided benefits
to patients, it did not have any effect on several other factors,
including nausea, length of hospital stay and bowel function after
surgery. It is unclear, the researchers note, why music alone
and music in combination with soothing words did not provide the
same benefits.
The findings need to be confirmed in additional studies, the
authors note.
SOURCE: Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica 2001;45:812-817.
Reference
Source 89
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