The Effects of a Music Therapist Designed Listening Program on Intraoperative Vitrectomy

This will be a prospective, randomized controlled trial with patients randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. The experimental group will be exposed to the independent variable (IV) and the control group will not be exposed to the IV. The IV will be a music therapist- designed listening program during surgery. A total of 60 patients will be consecutively enrolled and undergo block randomization to either a music listening group or a control group (no music). Trained medical research personnel will assist with various parts of the study and will be defined as those individuals who have completed and are up-to-date on the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) training. These individuals will consist of a board certified music therapist, practicing ophthalmologists, and physicians-in-training.

This prospective trial will block randomize a consecutive cohort of patients undergoing routine vitrectomy surgery at an university hospital to a designed listening program during surgery or to nothing in order to determine whether music listening during surgery can measurably result in decreased patient pain assessed by the Wong-Baker Faces Pain scale. Secondary outcome measures will be blood pressure, need for anxiety medication, postoperative pain medication, and patient overall experience.

Patients undergoing vitrectomy surgery will listen to a designed playlist of music during the entire duration of surgery

Those randomized to music listening will be exposed to a standardized playlist of previously validated relaxation music.

post-operative pain as measured by the Wong-Baker Faces pain scale, 0 is no pain, 10 is the worst pain

patient satisfaction as measured by a modified version of the The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey

Inclusion Criteria: Inclusion criteria will consist of patients already scheduled for elective vitrectomy surgery at a tertiary academic university hospital. Exclusion Criteria: Exclusion criteria consist of: patients with deafness or unilateral or bilateral severe hearing loss, unwillingness or inability to complete post-surgical surveys, previous vitrectomy surgeries, diagnosed anxiety disorder (claustrophobia, etc.), and/or chronic narcotic or substance abuse.