Listening to music after an operation accelerates patients’ recovery, indicates scientific evidence

Listening to music speeds up recovery after surgery: it reduces the patient’s perception of pain, anxiety and heart rate, according to a study presented this Friday at the Annual Congress of the College of Surgeons of the United States.

The authors, researchers at the University of California Northstate School of Medicine, have analyzed existing studies on the potential of music to help people recover after surgery.

In total, they have reviewed 3,736 scientific papers and have focused especially on the 35 that included precious data on the impact of music on reducing the sensation of pain and anxietyas well as measurements of heart rate and the consumption of opiates as pain relievers after surgery.

Their conclusion is clear: the reduction in cortisol levels that occurs when listening to music, whether through headphones or a speaker, facilitates the recovery of patients, especially in four areas.

Less sensation of pain

Patients who listened to music experienced a statistically significant reduction in pain the day after surgery, based on two scientific measurement scales: the Numerical Rating Scale (about 19% reduction) and the Visual Analogue Scale (about 7% reduction).

In all the studies analyzed, the levels of anxiety reported by patients were reduced on average by 3%, based on the scales measuring this disorder.

Patients who listened to music consumed less than half as much morphine as those who did not listen to music the day after the intervention: an average of 0.758 milligrams compared to 1.654 for those who did not listen to music.

And fourth, those who listened to music experienced a reduction in heart rate (about 4.5 beats per minute less) compared to patients who did not.

This last piece of information, the authors point out in a statement, is “key” because maintaining a patient’s heart rate within a healthy range, as it allows oxygen and nutrients to circulate better throughout the body and, in particular, through the body. the operated areas.

A cheap, simple and effective therapy

“Although we cannot specifically argue that patients feel less pain, studies agree that patients perceive that they feel less pain, and that is just as important,” emphasizes one of the authors, Shehzaib Raees, a Medicine researcher at the University of California Northstate.

“When patients wake up after surgery they sometimes feel very scared and don’t know where they are. Music can help ease the transition from waking up to returning to normal, as well as help reduce stress in that transition.”says another of the authors, Eldo Frezza, professor of surgery at the same university.

“Unlike other therapies, such as meditation or Pilates, which require considerable concentration or movement, listening to music is a more passive experience and can be incorporated by patients without great cost or difficulty immediately after the operation,” he adds.

The studies reviewed did not control how long patients listened to music or what type of music, but the California team plans to conduct a pilot program to evaluate the use of music in the surgical setting and in the intensive care unit. .

“We believe that music can help people in different ways after surgery, it has been proven to comfort and make the patient feel as if they were in a familiar place, and these two factors are fundamental in recovery,” concludes Raees.