Meta‐analysis evaluating music interventions for anxiety and pain in surgery. BJS 2018; 105: 773-783.

Results

Ninety‐two RCTs (7385 patients) were included in the systematic review, of which 81 were included in the meta‐analysis. Music interventions significantly decreased anxiety (MD –0·69, 95 per cent c.i. –0·88 to –0·50; P < 0·001) and pain (MD –0·50, –0·66 to –0·34; P < 0·001) compared with controls, equivalent to a decrease of 21 mm for anxiety and 10 mm for pain on a 100‐mm visual analogue scale. Changes in outcome corrected for baseline were even larger: MD –1·41 (–1·89 to –0·94; P < 0·001) for anxiety and –0·54 (–0·93 to –0·15; P = 0·006) for pain. Music interventions provided during general anaesthesia significantly decreased pain compared with that in controls (MD –0·41, –0·64 to –0·18; P < 0·001). Metaregression analysis found no significant association between the effect of music interventions and age, sex, choice and timing of music, and type of anaesthesia. Risk of bias in the studies was moderate to high.