Listen to music speeds up recovery after a surgical intervention: it reduces the sensation of pain perceived by the patient, anxiety and heart rate, according to a study presented this Friday at the Annual Congress of the College of Surgeons of USA.
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 thousand 736 scientific works and have focused especially on the 35 that included precise data on the impact of music on reducedn of the sensation of pain and anxietyas well as measurements of heart rate and the consumption of opiates as pain relievers after surgery.
His conclusion is clear: the reduced cortisol levels which 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 scales of measurement scientists: the Numerical Rating Scale (about a 19 percent reduction) and the Visual Analog Scale (about a 7 percent reduction).
In all the studies analyzed, the anxiety levels reported by patients decreased on average by 3 percenteitherdepending on the measurement scales of this disorder.
The patients who listened to music consumed less than half morphine than 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 fourthly, those who listened to music experienced a reduced 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 researcher in Medicine 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 facilitate the transition from the waking phase 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 They didn’t control the time during which the patients listened to music or what kind of musictobut 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.
YRH
