Journal of Pain & Relief
Open Access

Case Report

Music is Medicine: Exploring the Use of Melody as an Adjuvant to Regional Anesthesia in Obstetrics

Nnamani NP^*

UT Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, Texas, United States

*Corresponding Author:

Nwamaka P Nnamani
UT Southwestern Medical Center Dallas
Texas, 75390, United States
Tel: 7737492220
E-mail: nwamaka411@yahoo.co.uk

Received date: January 13, 2017; Accepted date: February 02, 2017; Published date: February 07, 2017

Citation: Nnamani NP (2017) Music is Medicine: Exploring the Use of Melody as an Adjuvant to Regional Anesthesia in Obstetrics. J Pain Relief 6:282. doi:10.4172/2167-0846.1000282

Copyright: © 2017 Nnamani NP. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Music has been employed in anesthesiology to alleviate anxiety in patients before, during and after surgery to minimizes or eliminates the need for sedatives. Obstetric anesthesiology utilizes mainly regional techniques and can present a special challenge to the anesthesiologist because the patient is awake and exposed to multiple anxiety provoking auditory and visual stimuli. In majority of cases, pharmacotherapy is used for anxiolysis. Music can be employed in obstetric anesthesiology as it is inexpensive, easily administered and free of adverse effects and can serve as a complementary method of treating perioperative stress. The case discussed highlights the possibility of employing the anxiolytic properties of music particularly in the latter trimester where various intrauterine techniques can be performed. The obstetrician anesthesiologist has the significant role of relieving pain and anxiety during pregnancy and labor; they can consider the use of modern and readily available technology instead of pharmaceuticals to complement regional anesthesia when possible.

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