Music speeds up recovery from surgery

Want to accelerate your recovery from surgery? Listening to music may be the key, according to a study presented at the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2024 in San Francisco, California.

Researchers at California Northstate University College of Medicine in Elk Grove, California, analyzed existing research on music and its role in recovery from surgery, reducing a list of 3,736 studies to 35. All studies included data on patient characteristics such as pain and anxiety, as well as heart rate and opioid use.

Through their analysis, the researchers found that simply listening to music after surgery, whether on headphones or through a speaker, has a noticeable effect on patients during the recovery period:

• Reduced pain levels: patients who listened to music had a statistically significant reduction in pain the day after surgery. Pain was measured using two validated measures in which patients were asked to self-rate their pain level: a numerical rating scale (approximately 19% reduction) and a visual analog scale (approximately 7% reduction).
• Reduced anxiety: in all studies analyzed, patients’ anxiety levels decreased by about 2.5 points, or 3%, as measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, in which patients answer questions and rate their anxiety on an 80-point scale.

• Less opioid use: on the first day after surgery, patients who listened to music used less than half the dose of morphine compared with those who did not listen to music (an average of 0.758 mg compared with 1.654 mg for those who did not listen to music).
• Decrease in heart rate: patients who listened to music had lower heart rates (about 4.5 beats per minute) than those who did not listen to music. The authors noted that this is important because keeping the heart rate in a healthy range helps improve recovery by allowing oxygen and nutrients to circulate efficiently throughout the body, especially to areas that have been operated on. In addition, tachycardia, or a heart rate of more than 100 beats per minute, can lead to abnormal heart rhythms such as atrial fibrillation, which can be life-threatening.

 

“When patients wake up after surgery, they sometimes feel very frightened and don’t realize where they are. Music can help ease the transition from the waking stage to return to normal life and reduce the stress associated with this transition.”

Eldo Frezza, MD, MBA, FACS, senior study author and professor of surgery at UCLA School of Medicine

“We are not claiming that one type of music is better than another,” the researchers said. “We believe that music can help people in different ways after surgery because it can be calming and make you feel like you are in a familiar place. Listen to the type of music that is your particular favorite.”