Published online Apr 29, 2020. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v10.i4.79
Peer-review started: December 2, 2019
First decision: February 20, 2020
Revised: March 9, 2020
Accepted: March 26, 2020
Article in press: March 26, 2020
Published online: April 29, 2020
Processing time: 141 Days and 21.5 Hours
Music therapy is an easy to apply, cheap and effective method to reduce perceived anxiety and pain during stress causing situations like surgery. Its application has been shown to improve patient satisfaction and willingness to repeat the procedure, consequently, promoting patient compliance.
Arteriovenous fistula creation is an important procedure which many patients have to go through after they receive the diagnosis of end stage kidney disease. If suitable, they also are being worked-up or put on the list to wait for a kidney transplantation. All these developments cause anxiety and confusion to the patient and relatives. As a physician it is our duty to reduce their anxiety and help them cope with these stressful events.
We sought to investigate the effects of music therapy on patients undergoing arteriovenous fistula creation surgery. The arteriovenous fistula creation surgery is usually performed under local anesthesia as a day procedure.
This study is designed as a randomized, single blind clinical trial where suitable patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were approached and asked for consent. Among the 55 who were consented, 14 were excluded due to requirement of sedation or uncompleted questionnaire forms. Remaining 41 were analyzed using STAI anxiety questionnaires, visual analog scales and vital signs closely related to anxiety and pain perception.
The STAI anxiety scoring results showed that music therapy was effective to reduce procedure related anxiety in patients undergoing fistula creation surgery. The overall patient satisfaction was found to be significantly higher in the music group as well. Perceived pain related to surgery was effectively reduced via listening to music, although there was no difference between analgesic use among the groups. Additionally, intra-operative heart rate and blood pressure measurements were significantly lower in the music group (P < 0.05).
This study shows that music therapy can be a useful tool to relieve patients` anxiety and pain undergoing fistula creation surgery.
Future studies should focus on more ways to implement music into patient treatments and enlighten the mechanisms in which music therapy provides relief. Additionally, it would be beneficial to investigate which types of music provide better outcomes while undergoing surgery.