Fear of surgery Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Surgical Serenity Solutions

How soon will you be having surgery?

If you’ve just found out that you need surgery, then you’re probably still shaking and quaking from the news. Perhaps you expected it, but perhaps you did not! So many people have a natural fear of surgery, and especially a fear of being put to sleep or anesthetized. The chances of something going wrong are less than 1%, but if you are part of this small group, your life might be at risk. Of course, if you need surgery and don’t have it, then your life is at risk anyway.

I was always taught that knowledge is power, so with that in mind, I want to tell you about one specific option that more and more people are turning to in order to increase the chances of a positive result and at the same time, decrease many of the dangers. This solution is so simple that many people overlook it completely, but it is so easy and safe that it is definitely worth giving a try. That solution is music! Not just any music though. The ideal music for surgery, especially if you’ll be put completely to sleep is music that is very slow and rhythmic. It is music that has the tempo of the healthy resting heartbeat and is purely instrumental, in other words, no lyrics! Ideally, the music should be played on a soothing instrument such as piano, harp, or flute. Probably not a brass instrument. Needless to say, there are millions of pieces of music that would fit this description, but after over 20 years research into the best music for surgery, I have chosen a set of pieces that I think are the best and hundreds of people have now listened to this music during their procedures and agree that it is amazingly calming and helpful. Some have told me that they will never again have surgery without this specific music playing through headphones!

Would YOU like to give it a try for your upcoming surgery? If so, just go to www.surgeryheadphones.com. There you can buy either pre-programmed headphones or a download of our scientifically researched music. This particular blog has literally hundreds of posts about the benefits, and FAQ’s of music with surgery! I would love to help you personally if you have questions and can set up an online consult with you via SKYPE or telephone call. If you live in the Louisville, KY area you can come into our offices for a face to face consult! Best wishes for a successful procedure.

By DrAlice|September 20, 2012|Characteristics of music for surgery, Common Fears in Surgery, Fear and Anxiety about Surgery, Fear of anesthesia, Fear of surgery|1 Comment

Music with Surgery Case History #5: 69 y.o. female with eye surgery

This patient came to me as a result of previous negative experiences with her eye surgeries and was scheduled to have more eye surgeries. The patient was a professional woman who had heard about music with surgery and the many benefits, especially in terms of stress relief and pain and anxiety management. The patient was suffering from both macular degeneration and glaucoma and needed to undergo procedures that required her to be both awake and sitting upright in a chair. She had already undergone three such procedures and reported that after each one she had a migraine headache and muscles that were so tense and tight and even a one-hour massage did not help enough. She had reached the point where she was willing to do anything in order not to suffer so much from these procedures.

Listen to the patient as she describes what happened:

If you have been told that you need to have eye surgery for any reason, whether lasik eye surgery, cataract surgery, glaucoma surgery or macular degeneration surgery, I strongly recommend that you consider using the surgical serenity headphones. They are currently being used at both the Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic, as well as other hospitals around the country. They will put you in a healing, sonic cocoon, and yet you can still hear the doctor if he needs to ask you a direct question. For more information, go to www.SurgicalHeadphones.com.

By DrAlice|September 20, 2012|Common Fears in Surgery, Dangers and Side-effects of anesthesia, Fear of surgery, Headphones for other medical procedures, Music and Eye Surgery, Surgery with Music Case Histories|1 Comment

Surgery with Music: Case History #1, 70-y.o.female with by-pass surgery

One of our first patients to use music during surgery, was a 70 year-old female with 90% blocked arteries. She had not yet experienced a heart attack, but was in grave danger of having one. She was moderately overweight and had a diet consisting of many fatty foods, fried foods, sugary foods and lots of diet soda. Her exercise level was almost non-existant because of arthritic hips, knees and other joint problems.

One Fall evening, she and her husband attended a local college basketball game at their coliseum. At half-time, the patient began to climb the stairs to the level where restrooms were and got so out of breath that she nearly passed out and could not continue the climb. First-aid staff was called and eventually patient was put into an ambulance and sent to the emergency room. Suspected heart attack was the initial diagnosis. After a short time, it was determined that she should be transferred to a larger, regional hospital with more services. This was when we were called in for a consult on whether or not music might be advisable.

The patient could not handle large amounts of anesthesia and was allergic to many pain meds, which made her violently nauseous. On day 3 of hospitalization I met with patient to discuss her taste in music and to recommend 4 or 5 different possibilities. Patient was not feeling well and was only mildly to moderately enthusiastic about using music with her upcoming open heart surgery. (This was 1996) Finally, patient said to me “why don’t you just choose whatever you think would be best as long as it isn’t “Nearer my God to Thee.”

Surgery was early the next morning and patient listened to Handel’s “Water Music Suite” through light-weight headphones for about four hours of surgery. The surgeon called us back after surgery to see patient and was I in for a surprise! Upon approaching her bed in the recovery area, patient propped herself up on an elbow and said “Oh Dr. Cash, the music was BEAUTIFUL!!” I will never have surgery again without using music! It was just so beautiful and I really enjoyed it!!” Wow!

I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone before or since tell me that they enjoyed surgery, but then she was still “under the influence” of some of the drugs. When I visited her in her room the next day, she still had her headphones one and said they helped her sleep in an otherwise quite noisy environment. “A hospital is no place to get any rest and I want to go home as soon as possible.” She went home 5 days later and is still doing well and listening to her headphones!

By DrAlice|September 3, 2012|Anesthesia, Common Fears in Surgery, Dangers and Side-effects of anesthesia, Fear of anesthesia, Fear of surgery, Surgery with Music Case Histories|2 Comments

Preparing for your surgery: 3 Easy Ideas

If you’ve just found you need surgery, or if you’ve decided to have an elective procedure, you still have fears and anxiety. Everyone does if they’re honest with themselves:

What if something goes wrong?
What if I wake up in the middle of the procedure?
What if I don’t wake up at all?!

In the vast majority of surgeries, nothing goes wrong. Surgery happens all over the world, every day. But when things go wrong, whether it’s leaving the sponge inside the patient’s body, taking off the wrong leg, or breast, or hand, it’s extremely traumatic.

I was always taught that knowledge is power, so if you’re planning to have surgery, you need to get information and do everything you reasonably can to assure a successful procedure. One of the easiest things you can do is to listen to music before, during and after your surgery or other medical procedure.

If you have enough time and know-how, you can begin choosing some of your favorite relaxing, comforting music to listen to, initially for an hour each day before the surgery, while lying down so that you can practice relaxing when you hear that self-chosen music.
You can talk to your surgeon in advance of the surgery and download your chosen music to your iPod or other MP3 player. If s/he approves the plan, you can take it to the hospital the day of the surgery and begin listening as soon as you get there, and continue all the way through recovery. There is ample research documenting the benefits of this, including reduced anxiety meds, anesthesia, and pain medication afterwards.
If you don’t have time, know-how, or willingness to do these things, you can buy pre-programmed headphones that already have the slow, steady, soothing music that researchers believe will keep your heart-beat and respiration steady and decrease the amount of anesthesia and pain medication you will need.

If I can help you in any way, feel free to contact me via a comment on this blog. Best wishes for a successful procedure!

By DrAlice|August 27, 2012|Anesthesia, Common Fears in Surgery, Dangers and Side-effects of anesthesia, Fear of anesthesia, Fear of surgery, Music and Anesthesia|0 Comments

Surgery With Music: Fears about Surgery and Anesthesia

By DrAlice|January 25, 2009|Common Fears in Surgery, Fear and Anxiety about Surgery, Fear of anesthesia, Fear of surgery|0 Comments

Fears about Surgery and Anesthesia

Anxiety before elective surgery is common. Therefore, many studies have examined interventions to reduce preoperative anxiety, including pharmacologic anxiolysis, information, distraction, and relaxation procedures. This study compared different methods to measure preoperative anxiety. The aims of the study were threefold. First, to examine the validity and utility of the self-reporting visual analog scale (VAS) and to compare this test to the standard Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Second, to find out whether the authors could identify patient risk factors or operations that correlated with high preoperative anxiety. Third, to itemize the concerns of patients admitted for elective anesthesia and surgery. The study was conducted in a university hospital in Switzerland.
The authors developed a questionnaire to evaluate the different aspects of preoperative anxiety. The final questionnaire contained 91 items. Topics covered included the patients’ demographic background, relevant medical and anesthetic history, visual analog scales (for fear of anesthesia, fear of surgery, and different aspects of preoperative anxiety), as well as questions designed to assess the impact of the preoperative visit by the anesthesiologist, patients’ satisfaction with different aspects of their preoperative care and the patients’ perception of their anesthesiologist. This study was performed on all patients admitted preoperatively for surgery over a three-month period . They completed the questionnaire on the evening before surgery, in hospital.
685 of the 734 questionnaires distributed to patients were returned. The authors found a significant correlation between the VAS measuring fear of anesthesia and the STAI, and between the VAS measuring fear of surgery and the STAI. These correlations were not significantly different between male and female patients. 25% of patients scored higher than 1 standard deviation above the normative mean STAI and were defined as having high preoperative anxiety. Factors associated with higher preoperative anxiety levels were age less than 37 years, previous negative experience with anesthesia, information seeking behavior (rather than information avoiding), and patients with high school only education. The different genders had increased fear of different kinds of surgical procedures.
The questions evaluating patients’ preoperative fears were assessed after factor analysis and found to have three characteristic areas. The first group of characteristics was called by the authors “fear of the unknown.” This factor consisted of fear of the waiting period before surgery/anesthesia, of being at the mercy of physicians during anesthesia, of surgical outcome, and of not knowing what occurs while unconscious during anesthesia. This factor correlated highly with the STAI. The second factor, termed “fear of feeling ill,” included the fear of postoperative nausea or vomiting, perioperative pain, as well as fear of discomfort at postoperative awakening and of awareness intraoperatively. The third factor was termed “fear for one’s life” and consisted of fear of not regaining consciousness, fear of dying and remaining in a coma. These latter two factors were less correlated with STAI. The authors also queried specific anxiety factors and found that “waiting for operation” generated the highest anxiety score. Postoperative pain anxiety ranked number four

[out of 10], postoperative nausea and vomiting ranked number six, and awareness under anesthesia ranked number ten of ten.
In summary, this study shows that the VAS may be a useful clinical tool to measure preoperative anxiety. Certain patient characteristics might serve to warn the anesthesiologist about the potential presence of increased preoperative anxiety. This increased knowledge may allow anesthesiologists to provide additional appropriate care to ameliorate the anxiety state.

By DrAlice|December 24, 2008|Fear and Anxiety about Surgery, Fear of anesthesia, Fear of surgery|0 Comments

Who else is concerned about the anesthesia during surgery?

This research has just come to my attention and I thought you’d want to see it too! It confirms my research exactly. For those who are able to choose their own favorite slow, steady, instrumental music, it’s great. For those who don’t have the time or the no-how, my music is already chosen and ready to go. In the near future, I plan to have many different genres of music that are also ideal for surgery. Please contact me if you are having surgery in the near future!

Contact: Jacqueline Weaver
jacqueline.weaver@yale.edu
203-432-8555
Yale University

Patients’ favorite music during surgery lessens need for sedative
New Haven, Conn.–Patients listening to their favorite music required much less sedation during surgery than did patients who listened to white noise or operating room noise, according to a Yale School of Medicine study published in May.
The senior author, Zeev Kain, M.D., professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, said previous studies have shown that music decreases intraoperative sedative requirements in patients undergoing surgical procedures under anesthesia. He wanted to know if the decrease resulted from listening to music or eliminating operating room noise

The study included 36 patients at Yale-New Haven Hospital and 54 patients at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. The subjects wore headphones and were randomly assigned to hear music they liked, white noise or to wear no headphones and be exposed to operating room noise. Dropping a surgical instrument into a bowl in the operating room can produce noise levels of up to 80 decibels, which is considered very loud to uncomfortably loud.

What they found is that blocking the sounds of the operating room with white noise did not decrease sedative requirements of listening to operating room sounds. Playing music did reduce the need for sedatives during surgery.

“Doctors and patients should both note that music can be used to supplement sedation in the operating room,” Kain said.

The lead author was Chakib Ayoub,M.D., with co-authors Laudi Rizk, M.D., Chadi Yaacoub, M.D., and Dorothy Gaal, M.D., of the University of Beirut Medical Center. The study was supported in part of National Institutes of Health grants.

Of course, a major solution is now available: www.surgicalheadphones.com.
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Anesthesia & Analgesia 100: pp 1316-1319 (May 2005)

By DrAlice|December 12, 2008|Fear and Anxiety about Surgery, Fear of anesthesia, Fear of surgery|0 Comments

Updates on Music with Surgery

Good Monday morning to you! As you may know, helping people to use music with their surgery is one of the main things that I do. There is so much research out there on the multiple and varied benefits of music THROUGH HEADPHONES during surgery that it’s no surprise that more and more hospitals are offering music to incoming surgery patients during the pre-surgery phase. I’m working hard to create a powerful and easy-to-use system that patients can take into surgery or having waiting for them in the waiting area. I’m working on an eBook right now that will provide a step-by-step process for creating your own surgery playlist and talking with your physician/surgeon about using music before, during and after the procedure.

As I travel around the country I try to talk with as many interested physicians as possible about these ideas. On a recent trip to Sarasota, Florida, I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. Marlene Buckler, an ER doc who is very excited about my music and surgery ideas and has given me many insights and suggestions already. I’d like to refer my readers to her website http://www.stayoutofmyer.com/ and suggest that you sign up for her free “Tip of the Week.” I’ve worked with hundreds of people now, helping them choose the perfect music for their procedure. I hope you’ll consider it and tell your friends to visit my website for more info! Have a great week!

By DrAlice|March 10, 2008|Anesthesia, Common Fears in Surgery, Fear of surgery, Headphones for other medical procedures|0 Comments

Update on Music with Surgery

It seems that every day brings new articles and press releases about a certain hospital or surgeon who is now using music routinely with his surgeries. By now, you know that benefits to patients and benefits to surgeon are different. Music for the surgeon came first as Don Campbell’s book, “The Mozart Effect” proclaimed back in 1998. Don cited my work educating surgeons at the University of Louisville School of Medicine about benefits of music in surgery, but people were not taking into accout that the patients, even though anesthetized could still hear andbe influenced physiologically by the music.
For this reason, doctors and patients alike are becoming more and more aware that the patient needs his own separate and different music during the surgical procedure! What kind of music? Preferably slow, steady, purely instrumental music that comes through headphones directly into the patient’s brain through the 8th cranial nerve. This way the patient not only has their heartrate and breathing stabilized through the process of entrainment, but also they don’t have to hear the bleeps and blips of OR machines and conversations of surgical staff that are irrelevant and potentially upsetting to them.
Currently, I am working on an invention to be used during surgery. The patent is pending but I hope to make a major announcement about its availability in the next six months. Stay tuned! Alice

By DrAlice|September 7, 2007|Fear and Anxiety about Surgery, Fear of anesthesia, Fear of surgery|0 Comments