Effect of music therapy in the postanesthesia care unit: a nursing intervention.

This study examined the effect of music on pain, hemodynamic variables, and respiration in the PACU, and the impact of music on patients' recall of their PACU experience. Sixty patients scheduled for thyroid, parathyroid, or breast surgery under general anesthesia were studied. Patients were randomly assigned into three groups: group 1, control, not wearing headphones; group 2, wearing headphones but hearing no music; and group 3, wearing headphones and listening to music. A visual analogue pain scale was used to rate patients' perception of pain. There was no difference in pain level, morphine requirement, hemodynamics, respiration, or length of stay in the PACU among the 3 groups, yet the music group was able to wait significantly longer before requiring analgesia on the nursing unit. Patients who listened to music perceived their PACU experience as significantly more pleasant than the patients in the other two groups as recalled both 1 day and 1 month later.