A study published in the British Journal of Surgery examined how perioperative musical interventions affect surgery patients.
Researchers studied 11 electronic databases to identify full‐text publications of randomized controlled trials that examined the effect of musical interventions on anxiety and pain during invasive surgery. They searched for publications between Jan. 1, 1980 and Oct. 20, 2016. They included 92 randomized controlled trials (including 7,385 patients) in the systematic review, of which 81 were included in the meta‐analysis.
The study shows compared to controls, musical interventions significantly decreased anxiety, equivalent to a decrease of 21 mm on a 100‐mm visual analogue scale. The interventions also reduced pain, equivalent to a decrease of 10 mm on the aforementioned scale.
Additionally, researchers found no significant link between the effect of musical interventions and age, sex, choice and timing of music as well as type of anesthesia.