The effect of music therapy on postoperative pain intensity in patients under spinal anesthesia

Music as a non-pharmacological and inexpensive nursing intervention can be used easily as complementary technique and can be effective in reducing pain with other methods. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of music therapy on postoperative pain intensity in patients under spinal anesthesia. In this semi-experimental study which has been done in 2011 in the operation room of Baqiyatallah and Khanevadeh hospital in Tehran, sixty male in ASA (American society of Anesthesiological) 1 between 18-44 years old undergoing urological and abdominal surgeries with spinal anethesia were studied. Patients were randomly divided into two groups of thirty persons. Patients in music group listened to Huan Sepastian Bakh''s music about six minutes after induction of spinal anesthesia to the end by headphones. The control group did not receive any intervention. About three hours after surgery and before receiving any narcotic drugs, postoperative pain was measured and recorded by visual analog scale. Also consumption of narcotic drugs was recorded in the 24 hours after surgery. Comparison of pain intensity after the operation has been done in two groups by using Manvitni test. Findings of the study showed that music group shows a significant decrease compared to the control group (p=0.005). Pethedine consumption had a significant difference after surgery in both groups (p=0.041). Hearing the music during surgery with spinal anesthesia can reduce postoperative pain. The researcher offers to use music as a complementary method in patients in order to reduce prospective pain.