Here is some great medical news for music lovers from medical journal, the Lancet. Listening to music before, during, or after a surgical procedure is beneficial to patients and can reduce pain and anxiety significantly, according to a just-published comprehensive review of the literature.
As a junior hospital doctor I benefited from the vision of an eminent professor of vascular surgery who was ahead of his time in playing music in the operating theatre. Long hours repairing aortic aneurysms and salvaging lower limbs ravaged by peripheral vascular disease were made easier by listening to instrumental music by a group called Sky. Led by guitarist John Williams, their schtick was to put a modern twist on gavottes and other classical tunes. It certainly had a soothing effect on us doctors and nurses and, with the absence of lyrics, did not affect the quality of our interprofessional communication. In fact, I'd like to think that, in the words of Sade, it turned us into Smooth Operators.
If you were awake during a surgical procedure, are there medically themed tunes you would like to listen to? I can think of a few that might be a bit too close to the bone: Bob Dylan's Knockin' on Heaven's Door comes to mind. On the other hand, Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb contains a most appropriate positive message for someone undergoing a procedure under spinal anaesthesia.
But enough of my ramblings through the lyric books. What exactly did the research find? Analysis of data from 72 trials involving nearly 7,000 patients found that patients were significantly less anxious after surgery and reported significantly more satisfaction after listening to music .They also needed less pain medication and reported significantly less pain compared with controls.
“If you can imagine a way of measuring pain from nought to 10 on a centimetre scale where nought is no pain at all and 10 is the worst pain imaginable, the music, we found, reduced people’s pain by about two on that scale,” says Dr Catherine Meads of Brunel University, the lead author.
Surprisingly, even listening to music while under general anaesthetic reduced patients’ levels of pain, although the effects were greater when patients were conscious. Compared with drugs, prerecorded music played through headphones, musical pillows or background sound systems can be a non-invasive, safe and inexpensive intervention that can be delivered easily in a medical setting, Meads suggests.
Using music to improve patients’ hospital experience has a long history; its potential was recognised by Florence Nightingale. Music was first described being used to help patients during operations in a scientific paper more than 100 years ago. But it is still not routinely used around the time of surgery.
An important consideration in promoting a more widespread use of music during surgery is that it does not interfere with communication among healthcare professionals, something that is seldom recognised as a potential safety hazard, according to the authors of a recently published study in the Journal of Advanced Nursing. Researchers from Imperial College London studied video recordings from 20 surgeries in two operating rooms. They found that repeated requests, such as for surgical instruments, were five times more likely to occur in settings in which music was playing.
While acknowledging the need to be mindful of a medical team’s communication, Meads is a strong advocate of the role of music before, during and after surgery. “Music is a noninvasive, safe, cheap intervention that should be available to everyone undergoing surgery. Patients should be allowed to choose the type of music they would like to hear to maximise the benefit to their wellbeing,” she writes.
Might music have soothing benefits in other areas of healthcare? People facing an interminable wait in emergency departments may or may not appreciate the Clash's Should I Stay or Should I Go? but could certainly empathise with the Rolling Stones classic (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.
muirishouston.com