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!
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