Listening to music before going into surgery can help patients relax and reduce anxiety, a new study has revealed.
The research, which was undertaken by scientists at Cochin University Hospital in France, found that those patients who listened to music ahead of eye surgery were more relaxed than those who did not for up to an hour afterwards.
A total of 62 patients were prospectively and randomly assigned to hear relaxing music or no music through headphones for around 15 minutes just before cataracts surgery. They were then asked to answer questions on anxiety levels both pre and post operation.
While anxiety levels were less with the music listeners, they also received ‘significantly less’ sedatives during surgery compared with the non-music group.
Dr Guerrier said: ‘Music listening may be considered as an inexpensive, non-invasive, non-pharmacological method to reduce anxiety for patients undergoing elective eye surgery under local anaesthesia.
‘The objective is to provide music to all patients before eye surgery. We intend to assess the procedure in other type of surgeries, including orthopaedics where regional anaesthesia is common. Moreover, post-operative pain may be reduced by decreasing pre-operative anxiety, which is another study we intend to perform.’
The results of the study were presented during the Euroanaesthesia 2016 conference in London.
The research, which was undertaken by scientists at Cochin University Hospital in France, found that those patients who listened to music ahead of eye surgery were more relaxed than those who did not for up to an hour afterwards.
A total of 62 patients were prospectively and randomly assigned to hear relaxing music or no music through headphones for around 15 minutes just before cataracts surgery. They were then asked to answer questions on anxiety levels both pre and post operation.
While anxiety levels were less with the music listeners, they also received ‘significantly less’ sedatives during surgery compared with the non-music group.
Dr Guerrier said: ‘Music listening may be considered as an inexpensive, non-invasive, non-pharmacological method to reduce anxiety for patients undergoing elective eye surgery under local anaesthesia.
‘The objective is to provide music to all patients before eye surgery. We intend to assess the procedure in other type of surgeries, including orthopaedics where regional anaesthesia is common. Moreover, post-operative pain may be reduced by decreasing pre-operative anxiety, which is another study we intend to perform.’
The results of the study were presented during the Euroanaesthesia 2016 conference in London.
