Headphones for other medical procedures Archives - Page 2 of 6

Will my surgeon let me use music in the operating room?

Great question! Many people fear that even if they want to use their own music in the Operating Room, their doctor won’t allow it because of concerns with germs, cleaniliness, or some sort of interference with their equipment. Let me address these concerns, one by one:

Possible Concerns of the Surgeon

Could music through headphones or an iPod/MP3 play introduce germs into the surgical field? I have been told repeatedly by surgical personnel, that everything in the OR does NOT have to be sterilized. Only the instruments that go inside the patient music be sterilized. The table, floor, lamps, etc. are disinfected but not sterilized. Although the headphones that each person uses are brand-new and not touched by human hands once packaged, my recommendation that you order them several days in advance allows you to practice relaxing with them at home and get used to turning them off and on and adjusting the volume. So that when you arrive at the hospital, they will likely be wiped down with disinfectant anyway, but can also easily fit under the cap that the patient wears over their own hair and head.

Even in 2005, there were a few surgeons who would balk at the idea of bringing an ipod or headphones in the to the OR, but today, the benefits of the right kind of music in surgery, are so well documented that it is not an issue. Also, the fact that probably the majority of surgery now have music playing in the OR, makes it seem more natural for the patient to bring his music in. Especially for regional anesthesia or local anesthesia, it makes sense to let the patient bring in the music that will be comforting for them.

Why It Works

Rhythmic entrainment is so powerful and so well-documented that there is no questions that slow, steady, soothing music will calm a person down by slowly and regulating their breathing. You have a couple of choices. You can choose your favorite slow, steady, instrumental music and load it onto your iPod, or you can purchase cordless, preprogrammed headphones to take into surgery and they will last you for 5-10 years, and can be re-loaded with whatever music you like.

UPDATE: In 2021 you can order or download our new book “Having Surgery? Using Music to Decrease Anxiety and Pain Perception” or you can now download our new mobile app and sample five different playlists we have created for surgery in different genres

Having Surgery? Now available in the the Kindle Store!

Serenity Music Playlists now available in Apple App Store

P.S.

Surgical Serenity Solutions helps hospitals and medical facilities that offer surgery increase patient satisfaction as well as reduce anxiety and pain perception, using carefully curated music that harnesses the power of rhythmic entrainment to stabilize heart rate and breathing.

Best wishes on your surgery and let me know if I can help you or answer any questions!

By DrAlice|April 4, 2013|Anesthesia, Characteristics of music for surgery, Common Fears in Surgery, Headphones for other medical procedures, Music in the hospitals, surgery preparation|0 Comments

Surgical Serenity Solutions: Combating Side-Effects of Anesthesia and other meds

Music Helps with Surgical Side-Effects

No one wants to have surgery. No one wants to be in the hospital, but sometime you really don’t have a choice. If you are in an automobile accident and seriously hurt, going to a hospital and having surgery might save your life when nothing else would. If you’re told you need to have a colonoscopy for diagnostic purposes or if your appendix is inflamed and in danger of bursting, you’ll want to be in a hospital. But there is a very simple procedure that can greatly reduce the pain, anxiety and side-effects of surgery and anesthesia. That intervention is music. Is there documentation of this? Absolutely! Here is a link to one recent study: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19388893 “Relaxing Music as Pre-Medication before Surgery.” It is a well-known fact that nowadays, many surgeons play music in the operating room. Do they play slow, soothing, calming music? Usually not! They play upbeat, faster music that keeps their energy level up and their focus sharp. This is a good idea for the surgeon and other staff members, but it is not good for the patient! The patients needs slow, soothing, purely instrumental music that will entrain, or synchronize his heart rate and breathing to the music. The studies show clearly that patients receiving music before, during and after surgery suffer from less nausea, less dizziness, less confusion and recover faster because they require less pain medication and often, less anesthesia. It really makes sense if you think about it. More and more patients are bringing their own iPods and other devices into surgery and that is usually an option, but if you don’t have the time to create your playlist or don’t know how, or don’t want to, pre-programmed headphones created especially for your surgery are available. Questions? Just send them to me through this blog!

By DrAlice|October 19, 2012|Anesthesia, Common Fears in Surgery, Dangers and Side-effects of anesthesia, Fear and Anxiety about Surgery, Headphones for other medical procedures|0 Comments

Music with Surgery, Case History #7: Dental Surgery

Dental surgery in your future?

Whenever I mention using music for surgery, everyone says “have you thought about using the Serenity Headphones for dental surgery? Why yes, that has been one intended use from the beginning! It definitely makes sense, since the sound of the dental drill is one of the most un-nerving sounds on the planet. My dentist has had headphones available for years, but they are the kind that plug into the wall and there are so many cords near the chair I choose not to use his at all. Plus, they are set just to play the radio station that office staff chooses which I don’t usually prefer. Here’s a patient’s account from Canada: ” I had my dental surgery on Wednesday, April 8th with your surgery music and it was wonderful. I had begun listening to the music ahead of time, so they were like old friends when surgery time rolled around. Benefits were I kept expecting to be nervous as the date of surgery rolled around, but found I couldn’t summon up any anxiety! I was sure I wouldn’t be able to sleep prior to the surgery, but, guess what, I slept well! I was calm and relaxed befor the surgery; my blood pressure dropped to normal limits; the dentist and staff tucked me in, made sure the music was playing, and away we went. Post-op I was still relaxed-had a sleep and had little pain. I had a bunch of work done. I did take an Advil at bedtime just for “insurance” but really didn’t need it. Thank you Dr. Cash, for your beautiful music and the cordless pre-programmed headphones!” Anne Thoen, Alberta, Canada So, if you have a sensitive mouth, need some dental work and want to try a tested and proven method of coping with dental pain and anxiety, I suggest you get our headphones, which come pre-programmed and fully charged! Or you can purchase a download of the serenity music to load on your own MP3 player or iPod! Best wishes for a successful surgery!

By DrAlice|October 12, 2012|Anesthesia, Common Fears in Surgery, Fear and Anxiety about Surgery, Headphones for other medical procedures|2 Comments

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 #2, 62 year-old man with Pacemaker implantation

Patient was a 62 y.o.male who had a history of two previous heart attacks, was diabetic and suffering from tremors and generalized weakness. Patient came to me as a result of reading online about the benefits of music with surgery and because he had been told that anesthesia would be more of a danger for him that the average 62 y.o. man. Patient’s health was moderately to severly compromised and he also had major anxiety about being in the hospital anyway because of previous associations with being ill.

Patient reported that he considered creating his own playlist for surgery that would included favorite country music, but after listening to samples of the Serenity Music, he realized that the slow, steady, instrumental classical music enabled him to relax more and drift off to a state of calm and relaxation. When procedure was over, patient’s recovery nurse said he required less pain medication than average person having this procedure and that he woke up more alert than most! Patient reported he was very pleased overall and that he would definitely use the headphones again with any future medical procedures. This man was so encouraged, he created this video testimonial for us:

By DrAlice|September 8, 2012|Anesthesia, Dangers and Side-effects of anesthesia, Headphones for other medical procedures, Pacemaker implantation, Surgery with Music Case Histories|0 Comments

How Does Music Reach the Brain during Surgery

When patients have surgery today, music CAN come to them in one of several different ways. Sometimes there is ambient music in the operating room. Oftentimes, the surgeon has speakers set up that are playing HIS or HER favorite music. That’s great for the surgeon, but the music that the surgeon needs is often the opposite from what the patient needs. The surgeon wants rhythmic, upbeat music that will keep his energy up and his focus sharp! The patient needs music that is slow, soothing and steady. Even under general anesthesia, the heart and breathing will entrain or synchronize with the pulse of the music.

When the patient listens to music of this type, he can have all the benefits of less anesthesia, less anxiety medication and less pain medication. The less medication and anesthesia that the patient requires, the faster and safer the recovery will be. When the patient listens through headphones, the surgeon’s music is blocked, or at least muffled greatly. Also, conversations in the OR that the patient doesn’t need to hear will be blocked. Patients often report that they heard conversations between nurses and doctors that were upsetting in one way or another.

A third choice in some hospitals is actual live music, administered by a music therapist. I think this would be fantastic because clearly the music would be geared toward the patient. I’m not sure how practical this is in a large busy hospital where the 20 operating rooms are busy all day long. MY choice would be the headphones and the only place that carries them right now is www.SurgicalSerenitySolutions.com. Check them out and let me know what you think. They can be used for years after the surgery and you can add more music or delete any and all of it and create your own playlist. Not only that, but you can download the music from the website onto your own iPod or MP3 player. Pretty cool!!

By DrAlice|August 15, 2012|Common Fears in Surgery, Dangers and Side-effects of anesthesia, Headphones for other medical procedures, Music and the 8th Cranial Nerve, Rhythmic entrainment|0 Comments

Preparing for Surgery: Three easy things you can do today

Waiting to go into surgery.

No one really wants to have surgery. If you must though, for a life-threatening condition or a life-enhancing procedure, there are a few easy things you can do to help yourself and greatly improve your outcome:

1. Starting today, begin eating light and healthy foods that are easy to digest. Especially if you go under general anesthesia, all of your systems slow way down…like peristaltic action? The easier to digest foods you eat today, the happier you’ll be after your surgery.

2. Make sure that you have some frozen casseroles in your freezer, or friends lined up to bring in food for the week after surgery. You may not be able to get up and down easily and you certainly can’t get to the grocery or stand on your feet cooking. Ordering pizza or Chinese food is highly NOT recommended either. Stock your cabinets and fridge now with simple foods that are healthy and easy to prepare. We like fresh fruit, yogurt, scrambled eggs, salad fixins and lean turkey or chicken.

3. Begin putting together a playlist of your favorite soothing, comforting music for your iPod. Studies have shown that listening to favoite calming music before your surgery can greatly decrease the amount of anxiety medication you’ll need. Listening to slow, steady, simple music during surgery can help maintain blood pressure and breathing and listening to favorite, slightly more upbeat music after surgery can decrease pain meds and overall recovery time. You can make your own playlist, or order our pre-programmed headphones on this page.

Here’s to a very successful surgery!

By DrAlice|June 16, 2012|Anesthesia, Common Fears in Surgery, Headphones for other medical procedures|0 Comments

Classical music ‘improves surgery’

Classical music could become a routine part of surgery, after a study found it helped to relax patients under local anaesthetic.

Surgeons believe playing a little knife music might benefit patients so much that they recover sooner from their operations.

Mozart was not actually one of the composers that those in the study got to hear. However, they were offered equally soothing pieces by Beethoven, Vivaldi and Bach.

Frank Sinatra was also on hand for those who preferred some easy listening during the operations, which included washing out major wounds.

Hazim Sadideen, the plastic surgeon who led the project at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, said: “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.

“This small scale work is the first time an attempt has been made to measure the impact music has in this specific group of patients and hints at the need for bigger multi-centre research to establish whether this should become part of standard practice.”

In the study, published in the journal Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons, 96 patients undergoing minor surgery were randomly assigned either music or silence. All were awake during their procedures, which included routine removal of skin lesions and cleansing of upper limb wounds after accidents.

The half played music reported lower anxiety levels and lower breathing rates than the others.

The medics did not evaluate whether Beethoven was better for patients than Bach.

By DrAlice|May 9, 2012|Anesthesia, Dangers and Side-effects of anesthesia, Headphones for other medical procedures, Music and Anesthesia, Recent Research on Surgery with Music, Surgery Music|0 Comments

Why do you need headphones and music during surgery?

Having surgery is a dangerous thing, but sometimes not having surgery is more dangerous. If you’ve been told that you need to have surgery, there are certain risks you will want to be aware of:

Anesthesia reactions:

Most problems that arise during surgery are the result of the surgery, not the sedation for the procedure. While uncommon, there are very serious complications that can occur if a patient has a reaction to the anesthesia drugs.

Most problems associated with anesthesia are related to the process of intubation, or inserting the breathing tube. Aspiration, or breathing food or fluid into the lungs, can be a problem, during surgery. Some patients also experience an increased heart rate or elevated blood pressure during the process.

The problem of anesthesia awareness has been discussed a great deal in the media, but waking during surgery or being awake throughout the surgery, is a very rare when anesthesia is provided by an anesthesiologist or a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA).

Malignant hyperthermia, a reaction to anesthesia that causes the patient’s temperature to rise rapidly, is life threatening. A patient who has had malignant hyperthermia in the past has a significant increase in risk and should discuss the issue with their surgeon and anesthesia provider. (information can be found on http://surgery.about.com/od/beforesurgery/a/RisksSurgery.htm)

How can music help? When patients have begun relaxing before their procedure with slow, familiar, favorite music, it is only natural that their bodies and muscles are not as tense and therefore the patient can be put to sleep more easily and with less anesthesia. When the music is continued, through cordless headphones, througout the surgery, the patient’s body stays relaxed and music with a steady, slow pulse, synchronizes the heartrate and breathing. Again, because the body is staying relaxed with the slow, steady music, less anesthesia is needed and the patient wakes up soon, still listening to the music through headphones, and requires less pain medication.

Several studies are in process right now, around the U.S. and doctors, hospitals, and patients are quite excited about the possibilities of a safer and a kinder procedure. The headphones that I have programmed with the ideal music for surgery are available now and can be overnighted to you if you need them quickly. If you have financial constraints, let me know and I will work with you to be able to get them. One day, music and headphones will be available in hospitals around the world. Don’t wait!

By DrAlice|March 23, 2012|Anesthesia, Dangers and Side-effects of anesthesia, Headphones for other medical procedures, Rhythmic entrainment, Surgery Music|0 Comments

Fear of Anesthesia: How Can the Right Music Help?

: Waiting for a Ceasarean-section childbirth

As a therapist and a clinical musicologist, I talk to people nearly every day that have just been told that they need to have surgery and are almost more fearful of the anesthesia than they are of having surgery! Why? Because general anesthesia is very powerful medication and occasionally people do not survive the anesthesia. The vast majority of people do fine, but if the patient is elderly or in a fragile health state already, it is a delicate balance.

How can music help? Music therapy and Operating Room nursing journals have shown repeatedly shown that listening to your favorite calming, comforting, soothing music can make a very positive difference in your overall surgical experience. There are also dozens, if not hundreds, of clinical studies showing that music in the recovery area can help the patient stay calm and comfortable as they regain consciousness and begin to feel the pain of the surgery.

Now, studies are being conducted to confirm that music DURING surgery can also make a positive difference and possibly decrease the amount of anesthesia needed to achieve the same degree of sedation, but without as much risk. This is achieved by tapping into the power of rhythmic entrainment, by which the slow, steady tempo of the music brings the heartrate and the breathing into synchronization with the music and thereby keeps the body relaxed.

To learn more about the incredible power and benefits of music during anesthesia and surgery, please check out: www.SurgicalHeadphones.com.

By DrAlice|January 15, 2012|Common Fears in Surgery, Dangers and Side-effects of anesthesia, Headphones for other medical procedures, Music and Anesthesia, Music and Propofol, Music in the hospitals, Rhythmic entrainment, Surgical Headphones reviews|1 Comment