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Music eases surgery and speeds recovery, study finds

bbc.com

41–50 of 106 posts

Re: Music eases surgery and speeds recovery, study finds

#41
post #35

I will have surgery soon. If I ask the surgeon to allow me to listen to music during the surgery, will they allow it? I know it depends on hospital/surgeon/etc, but I'm wondering how much doctors are willing to deviate from protocol in general.

Depends on the surgery and how you want to listen.

Ask to have it played in the room? Sure. Want to listen on your own device? We don’t want to be responsible for loss or damage to that device. Want to use earbuds? Same problem if you’re going to be sedated at all, plus there is also the risk of damage to you if there’s metal anywhere.

One of the most commonly used instruments in surgery is electrocautery. A large pad is placed on (usually) a leg and is one electrode; the other is the instrument tip that does the burning. In theory, any metal in the current path could be a point for arcing. This is why you are asked to remove piercings (see your piercer for silicone plugs to fill the holes during surgeries). We don’t want to torch you.

I’m an anesthesiologist. Some of the risks we are guarding against are more theoretical than practical, but until the 1950’s all useful anesthetic gases were flammable and so protocols were focused on not setting the patients or the operating room on fire, and while we no longer have conductive floors and grounding chains around our waists, we do still worry about setting patients on fire (alcohol is still a common solvent for skin prep solutions). And we don’t want to lose or damage your stuff.

Re: Music eases surgery and speeds recovery, study finds

#42
post #35

I will have surgery soon. If I ask the surgeon to allow me to listen to music during the surgery, will they allow it? I know it depends on hospital/surgeon/etc, but I'm wondering how much doctors are willing to deviate from protocol in general.

Depends on the surgery and how you want to listen. Ask to have it played in the room? Sure. Want to listen on your own device? We don’t want to be responsible for loss or damage to that device. Want to use earbuds? Same problem if you’re going to be sedated at all, plus there is also the risk of damage to you if there’s metal anywhere. One of the most commonly used instruments in surgery is electrocautery. A large pa…

Thanks, that's useful. My procedure is supposed to be 2 hours, laparoscopic. I will ask but without getting my hopes up.

Re: Music eases surgery and speeds recovery, study finds

#43
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't that be communicated without calling anyone a know-nothing hack?

I’m not gonna delete it as it’s just going to make comments like yours confusing for people, but that was poor phrasing from me. It gave the impression that this specific journalist knows nothing, which is unfair. I was trying to be funny (always risky online) and intended to be speaking humorously about science journalism in generally. In hindsight, my phrasing doesn’t do that, and actually doesn’t communicate what…

Oof, this comment was really nice up until the end. Accepting responsibility, expressing regret, etc.

> If someone is extremely upset or hurt by my comment then, I think, at some stage that isn’t my fault and the Internet might not be right for that person.

But then you're like "If you're upset, whatever, that's on you" - even though nobody's really suggested someone is "extremely" upset or hurt by your comment.

Also, you can be funny on the Internet - it has nothing to do with that. The real question is whether you can be funny without degrading people.

Re: Music eases surgery and speeds recovery, study finds

#44

A while back I had to have a long and unpleasant dental procedure - a bone graft so I could get an implant in an area where the bone had been damaged - this took about 4 hours. During this time the dentist played music - mostly various works selected at random by Hans Zimmer. At one point things got a bit intense as apparently I have very hard bones - which meant that quite a bit of force was being used. The music pl…

[deleted]

Re: Music eases surgery and speeds recovery, study finds

#45
post #37
post #2

Better to link the actual study rather than what a know-nothing hack has to say about it: https://mmd.iammonline.com/index.php/musmed/article/view/111... Nothing against the BBC but the most thoughtful journalist has all the scientific knowledge of Tarot Reader’s cat. Anyway, n=56 which is fine I guess but leaves loads of margin for error. Personally, I had a cystoscope and at the time had fancy health insurance so w…

n=56 doesn't give you much information regarding the margin of error, unless you practice Tarot Reader's cat science. The standard deviation of outcomes and the difference between both outcomes matter just as much. If I flip a coin 56 times and it always falls on head, I can be pretty much certain that it's not a fair coin. I wouldn't need to flip it 1000 times. We are all someone else's "know-nothing hack"...

also, “this is study is flawed because n=56, here’s my n=1” is hilarious

Re: Music eases surgery and speeds recovery, study finds

#46
post #32

Every hospital bed should have a comfortable pair of noise cancelling headphones with a variety of music for patient comfort.

Music might be nice - but I'd prioritize comfy noise cancelling headphones and sleep masks, so the poor patients can get some sleep amid the hospital's beeping gadgets, hard surfaces, and blinkenlights.

Re: Music eases surgery and speeds recovery, study finds

#47
When covid hit, my wife showed stroke symptoms - half her face stopped working (bell's palsy). She had an MRI as part of the diagnostic. As part of it, the operator asked her if she wanted to have some music. Yes please, some soft 80's love songs.

"Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games..."

It was not the calming music she was expecting. She still jokes about it.

Re: Music eases surgery and speeds recovery, study finds

#48
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s so valuable why not pay people that make it?

Lets pay for new music, but how about we have the old stuff be available for free or at cost?

Mickey Mouse made sure to make it as hard as possible.

Re: Music eases surgery and speeds recovery, study finds

#49

I am always so peaceful when listening to heavy metal ... :D I think the article should focus more on good music elements versus bad music elements. My brain gets annoyed at bad music. Good music can be useful though, in particular for relaxing. I normally dislike jazz-elements, but Sade for instance is acceptable (not pure jazz, but she uses jazzy elements).

Good music is subjective. Aside from the guitar skills involved in shredding, I think heavy metal is probably the worst genre of music.

I'd say good music is objective. Whether it's hard to play, uses complex polyrhythms etc. which most listeners aren't even aware of - and those people tend to think good music is subjective as they can't perceive the quality, only whether they like it or not. There's also some incredibly skilful metal music with no "shredding" whatsoever.

I don't particularly like Mozart but I'd be an idiot to say it's not good music. On the other hand most people agree Taylor Swift does not make good music, having released lots of samey 4 chord songs with incredibly simple melodies, but she's one of the most listened artists of all time.

Re: Music eases surgery and speeds recovery, study finds

#50
post #32

Every hospital bed should have a comfortable pair of noise cancelling headphones with a variety of music for patient comfort.

Music might be nice - but I'd prioritize comfy noise cancelling headphones and sleep masks, so the poor patients can get some sleep amid the hospital's beeping gadgets, hard surfaces, and blinkenlights.

I recently attended someone in the hospital. The constant beeping and alarms round the clock prevented any deep sleep for days, and seemed to hinder recovery.
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