Does Listening to Music during Tonsillectomy Affect Sevoflurane Consumption?

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of listening to music on the consumption of an anesthetic agent as well as postoperative recovery and pain in children undergoing elective tonsillectomy.

Fifty patients were randomized into those to whom music was played during surgery (group M) and a control group to whom music was not played (group C). The depth of anesthesia was provided by entropy levels of 50 ± 5 in both groups. Demographic characteristics and hemodynamic parameters were recorded perioperatively. The duration of surgery, sevoflurane consumption, eye opening time, and extubation time were also recorded. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Surgical pleth index values measured intraoperatively were statistically lower in group M than in group C. In the postanesthesia care unit children in the music group felt less pain than those in the control group according to the Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale (p = 0.035). The heart rates of the patients in the music group were statistically lower at 30 min intraoperatively and at the end of the procedure compared to the values of the control group (p = 0.015). The consumption of sevoflurane was lower in group M than in group C but the difference was not statistically significant. The need for additional fentanyl was significantly lower in group M than in group C.

In this study, the children exposed to music intraoperatively needed less analgesia during surgery, and reported less pain postoperatively, but there was no difference in sevoflurane requirements.