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 and Lok Nayak Hospital 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. The procedure is short - usually under an hour - and demands a particularly swift, clear-headed recovery.
To understand why the researchers turned to music, it helps to decode the modern practice of anaesthesia. Our aim is early discharge after surgery, says Dr Farah Husain, senior specialist in anaesthesia and certified music therapist for the study. Patients need to wake up clear-headed, alert and oriented, and ideally pain-free. With better pain management, the stress response is curtailed.
Achieving that requires a carefully balanced mix of five or six drugs that together keep the patient asleep, block pain, prevent memory of the surgery and relax the muscles.
In procedures like laparoscopic gallbladder removal, anaesthesiologists now often supplement this drug regimen with regional blocks - ultrasound-guided injections that numb nerves in the abdominal wall.
While modern anaesthesia techniques have evolved, managing stress response remains a central goal of care. Dr Sonia Wadhawan notes that even patients under anaesthesia experience physiological stress responses, making the integration of music a potentially valuable non-pharmacological intervention.
The initial results have shown that patients who listened to music required lower doses of anesthetics, experienced smoother recoveries, and demonstrated better control of stress responses. The auditory pathway remains active even when you're unconscious, says Dr Wadhawan, emphasizing the power of music during surgical procedures.
This innovative approach might help reshape surgical practices and improve patient outcomes in the future as the research team is set to explore further the benefits of music-aided sedation.
