MUSIC relaxes patients during surgery and could improve their healing, a study suggests. Chart hits such as Adele’s Someone Like You reduce anxiety among people who have ops under local anaesthetic, experts said. A study of 96 patients found the stress levels of those played music were 29 per cent less than those who lay in silence. The music group also had an average of 11 breaths a minute compared with 13 for the non-music patients. The study at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford is the first to examine the effect of music in the operating theatre. Previous studies have looked at its soothing effects when played in the waiting room. Study leader Hazim Sadideen said: “Undergoing surgery can be a stressful experience for patients and finding ways of making them more comfortable should be our goal as clinicians. “There are also good medical reasons — calmer patients may cope better with pain and recover more quickly.”
