Effective pain control is essential for surgical patients, as it significantly impacts their quality of recovery and the speed at which they return to daily activities. While opioids are traditionally used for managing postoperative pain, they come with potential side effects like nausea, sedation, and respiratory depression. This has led to an increased interest in multimodal approaches, combining both pharmacological and nonpharmacological techniques, to minimize opioid use and enhance recovery. Among the various nonpharmacological strategies available, music therapy has gained attention for its ability to promote mental and physical relaxation, improve patient satisfaction, and alleviate pain without significant side effects. Music has been documented to decrease intraoperative awareness and reduce incidences of postoperative nausea and vomiting. However, the effectiveness of music therapy in reducing postoperative pain and improving recovery outcomes has shown mixed results in these studies.
Although music therapy has been evaluated in multiple surgical settings, there has been no study on its specific effects in patients undergoing gynecological laparoscopic surgery. The impact of music therapy on the quality of recovery has not been examined using the Quality of Recovery-40 (QoR-40) survey—a validated tool that captures the patients’ perceptions of their postoperative recovery across dimensions like emotional well-being, pain, physical comfort, support, and independence.
A recent study published in “Medicine” was designed to address these gaps by evaluating the effect of music therapy on the comprehensive quality of recovery and postoperative pain in patients undergoing gynecological laparoscopic surgery. Intraoperative music intervention was effective in enhancing the quality of recovery as assessed by the QoR-40 survey and reducing pain at 36 hours postoperatively (see Graphic).
(Source: Choi EK, Baek J, Lee D. Effect on music therapy on quality of recovery and postoperative pain after gynecological laparoscopy. Medicine. 2023;102(9):e33071. Doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000033071)