In a new study, researchers found that music is a viable alternative to sedative medications in reducing patient anxiety prior to an anesthesia procedure.
The research was conducted by a team from Penn Medicine.
A peripheral nerve block procedure is a type of regional anesthesia that blocks sensations of pain from a specific area of the body.
The procedure is routinely performed for a variety of outpatient orthopedic surgeries, such as hip and knee arthroscopies and elbow or hand surgeries.
Many patients have anxiety before the procedure, and this can lead to prolonged recovery and an increase in postoperative pain.
Currently, sedative medications such as midazolam are commonly used prior to the nerve block procedure.
However, the medications have side effects, such as breathing issues and paradoxical effects like hostility and agitation.
In the new study, the researchers found relaxing music could be similarly effective to the drug midazolam in reducing a patient’s anxiety prior to the procedure.
They let 157 adults receive one of two options three minutes prior to the peripheral nerve block: either an injection of 1-2 mg of midazolam or a pair of noise-canceling headphones playing Marconi Union’s “Weightless,” – an eight-minute song designed specifically to calm listeners down.
The team examined levels of anxiety before and after the use of each method and found similar changes in the levels of anxiety in both groups.
The findings show that music can be a drug-free alternative to help calm a patient before certain anesthesia procedures.
But the team also notes that patients who received drug midazolam reported higher levels of satisfaction with their overall experience and fewer issues with communication.
Future work needs to see if improving the music method (e.g., allowing patients to select the music, standardizing the volume of music, etc) can help patients better.
The lead author of the study is lead author Veena Graff, MD, an assistant professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Critical Care.
The study is published in the journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine.
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