Bedside melodies help relieve cardiac procedural pain

Music therapy provides effective pain relief in patients undergoing cardiac procedures, in addition to improving respiration rate and systolic blood pressure, according to the results of a meta-analysis.

Researchers searched multiple electronic databases for studies evaluating the beneficial effects of music intervention/therapy vs control in patients who were suffering pain from cardiac procedures (open heart surgery, cardiac catheterization, C-clamp procedure, chest tube removal, and cardiac computed tomography scan).

Fourteen studies were included in the meta-analysis, contributing to a total of 1,143 participants receiving cardiac procedures. Music intervention/therapy (classical, jazz, nature, or folk music) was performed prior to, during, and after the procedure in four, three, and seven studies. Twelve studies mentioned the patients’ heart rate, seven evaluated respiration rate, nine measured systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and nine assessed pain.

Pooled data showed that compared with control (no intervention, usual care, or any active intervention), music interventions produced favourable effects on pain scales (mean deviation [MD], –1.84), heart rate (MD, –2.62), respiration rate (MD, –2.57), systolic blood pressure (MD, –5.11), and diastolic blood pressure (MD, 0.44).

Despite the heterogeneous nature and overall high risk of bias, the present data may be of value to clinicians and researchers looking to use music intervention as procedural support. The researchers recommended additional investigations to establish the effects of music intervention during cardiac procedures.