Listening to music is associated with a significant reduction in anxiety and pain after major heart surgery, an analysis of collected data of the available evidence, published in the online journal Open Heart.
Because music, unlike drugs, does not have known risks or side effects, but may affect health outcomes, clinicians should consider it for patients who are scheduled for major heart surgery, praises the researchers.
Heart surgery patients are often anxious before their procedure, and often experience severe pain afterwards, despite receiving sedatives and strong pain relief, the researchers said.
Postoperative stint in intensive care is then exposed to stressors known to increase anxiety and pain, such as noise, lack of sleep, and mechanical ventilation. These can, in turn, increase hospital stays and the need for additional medication.
Previous research has shown that listening to music around the time of any surgery could help reduce patients ’anxiety and reduce their pain.
To see if music would also help patients undergoing major heart surgery and the length of time they stay in hospital and the need for drugs and mechanical ventilation, etc., the researchers searched five electronic databases , looking for relevant clinical trials, published in English up to October 2019.
They reviewed the results of 20 studies, involving 1169 patients, and collected the data from 16, which included 987 patients.
The majority (90%) of the procedures in the included studies mainly involved coronary artery bypass graft and / or valve replacement.
Diagnostic scales and scoring systems were used to measure anxiety and pain: State Trait Concern Index; Visual Breath Scale; Numerical Assessment Scale; and the Hospital’s Lowest Anxiety Scale.
This type of music was usually defined as being calm and free from strong rhythms and beats (60%), and was delivered mainly through headphones (70%).
Patients chose their favorite music from either pre-selected lists (40%), lists selected by the researcher (35%), or selected their own playlists (15%).
The music sessions were repeated several times on one day or over several days, or once a day over several days. In 14 studies the music was only given after surgery; in five, was given before, during, and after the procedure.
Patients in the comparison groups received scheduled rest (8 studies), routine care (6), headphones / headphones without music (4), breathing exercises (1) or blank tape during surgery combined with routine care after sin (1).
The analysis of collected data showed that listening to music significantly reduced anxiety and pain after major heart surgery.
The first postoperative music session was associated with the corresponding reduction of 4 points on the StateTrait Impression Scale and of 1.05 points on the Visual Breath Scale / Numerical Scale for Anxiety Scale.
And it was associated with a decrease of 1.26 points on the Visual Analog Scale / Numerical Assessment Scale for pain.
But the effect on pain was not seen when the researchers collected the data from studies that provided music only before surgery, or those that offered a combination of time. .
Only a few studies have taken this approach, however, the researchers say.
Several days of listening to music reduced anxiety for up to 8 days after surgery.
But listening to music was not associated with any significant effect on opioid use; hospital stays; time spent on mechanical ventilation; blood pressure; heart rate; or respiratory rate.
However, again, this may be because these results were not the main focus of most of the included studies, suggesting the researchers.
A number of limiting factors must be taken into account, when explaining the conclusions, they are cautious.
These include a moderate to high risk of possible bias over the included studies, and the inability to ensure that patients did not know which group. assigned to them. There was considerable variation in timing, duration and type of music across the studies, some of which involved small numbers of patients.
Further research is therefore needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn, the researchers suggest.
Nevertheless, they conclude that listening to music is a “promising” option for key heart surgery patients.
“Because music interventions do not have known risks or side effects, but may have a positive impact on patient health outcomes, healthcare professionals should consider prescribing perioperative music to patients receiving heart surgery, “they suggest.
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External peer review? there is
Type of evidence: Systematic review + meta analysis
Subjects: People
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