The use of music during the immediate postoperative recovery period

The most effective approach to managing patients' pain in the immediate postoperative period may include a combination of pharmacologic agents and noninvasive, nonpharmacologic interventions. In this study, nurse researchers evaluated the effect of music on pain and anxiety levels and selected physiologic parameters of two groups of patients who were emerging and recovering from anesthesia. Patients in the treatment group listened to music through head-phones during the last 30 minutes of their surgical procedures and during the first hour in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU). Patients in the control group had identical surgical procedures, received the same preoperative medications, and were managed with the same anesthesia protocol but did not listen to music in the OR or PACU. No differences existed between the two patient groups in the variables measured; however, patients in the treatment group stated that music helped them relax and functioned as a distracter.