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Heart Rate Variability in Surgical Patients Experiencing Live Bedside Music; An Explorative Study

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Abstract

It’s known that surgery elicits a stress response involving the autonomic nervous system (ANS) which is important in general recovery but can also have detrimental effects in older patients. Music seems to positively effect postoperative recovery, although the mechanism requires further unravelling. Our objective was to explore the response of the ANS to live bedside music in older surgical patients, by using heart rate variability (HRV) as a proxy. This explorative prospective non-randomized controlled cohort study included 101 older non-cardiac surgical patients, with a median age of 70 (range 60–88 years). HRV was measured in a cohort receiving live bedside music provided by professional musicians and in a control group that did not receive music. HRV was measured pre-intervention, during the intervention, 30 min after the intervention, and again after three hours. Mixed linear modelling was used to assess the effect of the intervention compared to the control group over time. A significant change in both the low and high frequency bands (p = 0.041) and (p = 0.041) respectively, was found over time in the music group compared to the control group indicating relaxation and increased parasympathetic activity in the music group. Other measures revealed a trend but no significant effect was shown. These results provide a first glance and contribute to a better understanding of the effect of music on the recovery of older surgical patients.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all patients that participated in this study.

Funding

The authors did not received no funding for conducting this study. The authors declare they have no financial interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, HPC BA60, P.O. Box 30.001, Groningen, RB 9700, The Netherlands

    Hanneke van der Wal-Huisman & Erik Heineman

  2. Department of Anesthesiology, Pain Center, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Remko Soer

  3. Saxion University of Applied Science, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Remko Soer

  4. Department of Epidemiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Grigory Sidorenkov

  5. University Center for Geriatric Medicine, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Pauline de Graeff

  6. Department of Surgical Oncology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Barbara L. van Leeuwen

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  1. Hanneke van der Wal-Huisman
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  2. Remko Soer
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  3. Grigory Sidorenkov
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  4. Erik Heineman
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  5. Pauline de Graeff
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  6. Barbara L. van Leeuwen
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Contributions

Conception or design of the work: H. van der Wal- Huisman, B.L. van Leeuwen, E. HeinemanData collection: H. van der Wal- HuismanData analysis and interpretation: H. van der Wal- Huisman, B.L. van Leeuwen, R. Soer, G. Sidorenkov, P. de GraeffDrafting the article: H. van der Wal- Huisman, B.L. van Leeuwen, P. de GraeffCritical revision of the article: all authorsFinal approval of the version to be published: all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hanneke van der Wal-Huisman.

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The medical ethical board of the University Medical Center Groningen concluded that this study did not fall within the scope of the Dutch law of medical research involving human subjects act and provided dispensation for further assessment (registration number: 201600541). Informed consent was obtained from all participating patients. All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards and in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

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van der Wal-Huisman, H., Soer, R., Sidorenkov, G. et al. Heart Rate Variability in Surgical Patients Experiencing Live Bedside Music; An Explorative Study. Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback 49, 157–166 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-023-09609-y

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