FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

How many thousands of people around the world have surgery or a surgical procedure each day? Considering that most municipal hospitals have at least twenty operating rooms that are in use for 12-18 hours per day, we can safely assume that there are at least 50,000 per day. Each day people have adverse reactions to the anesthesia associated with their surgery, whether a local anesthesia, a regional anesthesia or a general anesthesia. Common side-effects are:

Nausea
Dizziness
Blurred vision
Temporary loss of memory
Loss of appetite
Headache

Of course general anesthesia carries the most serious risks and as a direct result of the changes in blood pressure and heart rhythms, heart attack and stroke during surgery can occur. According to WebMD, “death or serious illness or injury due solely to anesthesia is rare and is usually also related to complications from the surgery. Death occurs in about 1 in 250,000 people receiving general anesthesia, although risks are greater for those people with serious medical conditions.”

But wait! Why subject your self to the risks and complications when you can add music to the mix and greatly reduce the amount of anesthesia you need to be given? The fields of music therapy and nursing research have conducted hundreds of studies documenting music’s benefit before, during and after surgery. The phenomenon of entrainment is incredibly powerful and easily synchronizes a person’s heartbeat and breathing. When delivered through headphones it is doubly powerful because the slow, steady instrumental music goes directly to the brain, through the 8th cranial nerve, and entrains the bio-rhythms while simultaneously blocking operating room conversations and operating room sounds which can be quite un-nerving. For example, during joint replacement, there is hammering, drilling and sawing! Even when a patient is under general anesthesia, some of sounds penetrate into the subconscious and can cause the patient to wake up with severe anxiety and even panic.

When the patient brings the ideal music into surgery with headphones or ear buds to deliver it, the patient usually requires less anxiety meds before, less anesthesia during, and less pain and anxiety medication afterward! it is such a simple intervention, but few hospitals provide music for the patient in the operating room. My goal is to educate the public and the medical community and this easy-to-implement, very low-cost, and totally danger-free procedure. Feel free to contact me if I can help you with your upcoming procedure.

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail