TUESDAY, Jan. 13, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Going through a surgery often means post-operative pain for children, but listening to their favorite music might help ease their discomfort, a new study finds.
One expert wasn't surprised by the finding.
"It is well known that distraction is a powerful force in easing pain, and music certainly provides an excellent distraction," said Dr. Ron Marino, associate chair of pediatrics at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y.
Finding new ways to ease children's pain after surgery is important. Powerful opioid (narcotic) painkillers are widely used to control pain after surgery, but can cause breathing problems in children, experts warn.
Because of this risk, doctors typically limit the amount of narcotics given to children after surgery, which means that their pain is sometimes not well controlled.
The new study was led by Dr. Santhanam Suresh, a professor of anesthesiology and pediatrics at Northwestern University. It involved 60 children, aged 9 to 14, who were all dealing with post-surgical pain as patients at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.
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