Under the harsh lights of an operating theatre in the Indian capital, Delhi, a woman lies motionless as surgeons prepare to remove her gallbladder. She is under general anaesthesia: unconscious, insensate, and rendered completely still by a blend of drugs that induce deep sleep, block memory, blunt pain, and temporarily paralyse her muscles.
Yet, amid the hum of monitors and the steady rhythm of the surgical team, a gentle stream of flute music plays through the headphones placed over her ears. Even as the drugs silence much of her brain, its auditory pathway remains partly active. When she wakes up, she will regain consciousness more quickly and clearly because she required lower doses of anaesthetic drugs such as propofol and opioid painkillers than patients who heard no music.
That, at least, is what a new peer-reviewed study from Delhi's Maulana Azad Medical College suggests. The research, published in the journal Music and Medicine, offers some of the strongest evidence yet that music played during general anaesthesia can modestly but meaningfully reduce drug requirements and improve recovery.
The study focuses on patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy, the standard keyhole operation to remove the gallbladder, which is a short procedure that demands a particularly swift, clear-headed recovery.
Dr. Farah Husain, senior specialist in anaesthesia and certified music therapist for the study, emphasizes the aim of early discharge after surgery, requiring patients to wake up clear-headed, alert, and ideally pain-free. To achieve this, anaesthetists use a carefully balanced mix of drugs while also incorporating regional blocks to further tailor pain management.
Music therapy, already familiar in psychiatry and other fields, now appears to finally make its mark in the surgical realm. Should such simple interventions prove effective in reducing drug use and enhancing recovery, it could fundamentally reshape surgical practices and patient care.
