Intraoperative music reduces perceived pain after total knee arthroplasty: a blinded, prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

Patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) often experience a difficult recovery due to severe postoperative pain. Using a multimodal pain management protocol, a blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of patient-selected music on reducing perceived pain. Thirty patients undergoing primary unilateral TKA were enrolled and randomized into the music group (15 patients) or the control group (15 patients). Postoperative pain scores, assessed with the visual analog scale, indicated the music group experienced less pain at 3 and 24 hours postoperatively than did the nonmusic group (at 3 hours: 1.47+/-1.39 versus 3.87+/-3.44, P=.01; at 24 hours: 2.41+/-1.67 versus 4.03+/-2.89, P=.04). Intraoperative music provides an inexpensive nonpharmacological option to further reduce postoperative pain.