Researchers at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago found pediatric patients who listened to songs of their choosing, or audio books, experienced a significant reduction of post-surgical pain. But can it transfer to orthopedics in adult patients? And do orthopedic surgeons implement music or music therapy in their OR or practice?
"Audio therapy is an exciting opportunity and should be considered by hospitals as an important strategy to minimize pain in children undergoing major surgery," Santhanam Suresh, MD, Arthur C. King professor in anesthesiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and senior author of the study, told IndiaWest.. "This is inexpensive and doesn’t have any side effects."
To find out if other surgeons implement this idea to their medicine, we asked three surgeons how they use music in their practice.
Ask Orthopedic Surgeons is a weekly series of questions posed to orthopedic surgeons around the country about clinical, business and policy issues affecting orthopedics. We invite all orthopedic surgeons and specialist responses..Next week's question: What is your favorite orthopedic conference and why? What do you hope to gain most out of conferences?
Also, feel free to continue to send in responses to today's question.
Please send responses to Brandon Howard at bhoward@beckershealthcare.com by Wednesday, May 13 at 5 p.m. CST.
Question: Do you use music or music therapy in your practice or in your OR?
Brett J. Lewellyn, MD, orthopedic surgeon at Orlando Health: I usually start the day with some reggae, just to get the juices flowing and then I mix it up with some alternative/classic rock/hip hop – anything but country.
Robert Wascher, MD, FACS, surgical oncologist and chief of surgery at Cancer 
Treatment Centers of America, Western Regional Hospital in Goodyear, Aziz.: I have, for many years, played music in the operating room. My own personal experience has certainly been in line with clinical studies that have shown decreased stress levels among surgeons and their operating teams when music is played in the operating room. In my case, I have nearly 15,000 songs on my iPod, and so virtually everyone in the operating room with me will eventually hear a song or a genre of music that they like.
Jonathan Kaplan, MD, MPH, plastic surgeon at Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery in San Francisco: I've played music in the OR for my entire career. While the patient is
asleep and probably has no appreciation of what we're playing, I, along with the OR staff, enjoy listening to music during the case. In fact, we play different music during different portions of the case. Something classical when starting, and a little heavier rock, metal or hip-hop while closing!