Music therapy should be added to postoperative pain treatment as it been found to decrease pain in patients recovering from spine surgery. The latest research finding was compared to patients who have just undergone the regular and usual postoperative treatment.
The research was conducted by a team of researchers from The Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine together with Mount Sinai Department of Orthopaedics. The lead author is John Mondanaro, clinical director of The Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine. According to EurekAlert, the study is unique integrating music therapy to treat post-surgical pain, as stated by Mondanaro.
The study has utilized 30 spine surgery patients with a 30-minute music therapy together with standard post-operative care. The control group, also composed of 30 spine surgery patients, only received the standard post-operative care without music.
The visual analog scale (VAS) pain ratings were taken before and after the music therapy in both experimental and control group. VAS pain level increased slightly from 5.20 to 5.87 in the control group while in the experimental group, VAS pain levels decreased by more than one point 6.20 to 5.09.
Pain is subjective and personal requiring an individualized care to every patient, as stated by Joanne Loewy, DA, and the co-author of the study. The music therapy provided by The Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine was also individualized and was based according to; tension release, relaxation, joint singing and or rhythmic drumming.
According to University of Maryland Medical Center, a risk of complications can occur with any forms of surgery including spine surgery. Complications can be very serious and could involve an intense pain and impairment requiring an additional surgery. However, these complications can be managed through post-operative pain treatment as the current study suggests music therapy as an essential inclusion.
Music therapy was discovered as a natural analgesic paving a road to recovery for patients that have undergone spine surgery. The therapy could be very beneficial noting that it causes no harm and zero side and even adverse effects.
