I’ve been researching the use of music with surgery for about 15 years now. Not surprisingly, my mother is one of my biggest fans and now knows to always use music with surgery. Recently, she had her fourth surgery with music. As always, we talked to the anesthesiologist and the surgeon in advance to make sure they would allow this and without hesitation they said yes.

In case you need a refresher course, the reason we use
surgery is because the music synchronizes the heart-beat
and breathing and people use up to 50% LESS anesthesia!
This is HUGE because anesthesia is one of the things
you must recover from after surgery. This has been documented
in literally 100’s of studies from around the world with all kinds
of surgeries. When patients listen to music through headphones,
the music enters the brain through the 8th cranial nerve and not
only relaxes the patient but also blocks out the conversations
that the surgeon is having with assistants that could include
comments that the patient really doesn’t want to hear! People
have reported to me hearing nurses talking about what they
wanted for lunch, their boyfriends, etc. While I think this is
probably rare, it’s better not to hear anything but familiar, soothing
instrumental music.

Yesterday there was a front-page article in the NY Times about
music in the OR. While this article focused more on music for
the surgeon and staff, it is still very interesting and can be found at
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/10/arts/music/10doct.html?ex=1150689600&en=d373d592be9146ef&ei=5070&emc=eta1.

Enjoy!

For more information on music with surgery, visit my website at
www.SurgicalSerenitySolutions.com. You can order my two-tape
set there or sign up online for an individual consultation before
your surgery or just to talk about how music can improve, invigorate
and energize YOUR life! Until next time, keep the music playing!