Effect of music as an adjuvant in the analgesic effect in the postoperative period of LASEK surgery and in patients with chronic eye pain after LASIK surgery

Abstract

Purpose : To provide evidence on the effectiveness of music (music therapy) as an analgesic coadjuvant treatment in postoperative LASEK surgery patients

Methods : The study population consisted of two types of patients:
1. LASEK cohort: Patients who underwent LASEK surgery in both eyes at the Refractive Surgery Unit of the IOBA.
2. LASIK cohort: Patients with chronic ocular pain after LASIK surgery with prescribed analgesic treatment from the IOBA Oculo-facial Pain Unit.
Both cohorts were stratified according to: no listen to music regularly and listen to music regularly.
The LASEK group received "the patient's notebook" where they recorded the intensity of pain before entering the operating room and during the 72 hours after surgery. He also filled the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD), the comorbidities questionnaire (SIDEQ) and the music questionnaire. The LASIK pain group did the same for 72 hours after the day of inclusion in the study.
Although the main design feature of this study is the comparison of the effects of two exposures (pain medications alone and pain medications plus music) within the LASEK group, to meet the three conditions of positivity, interchangeability, and coherence that allow the causal effects to be identified, it will be necessary to also evaluate patients with chronic pain after LASIK surgery

Results : A total of 30 patients were included in the LASEK cohort, 15 of them did not listen to music. All patients reported postoperative ocular pain (VAS ≥20 mm) from 0.5 h to 60 h after surgery. For all patients, the peak pain occurred at 24 h after surgery with VAS and NPRS scores of 61±31 mm and 6.0±2.8 respectively
We are currently analyzing the data of the 15 patients who listen to music in LASEK cohort and the group of 10 patient’s whit chronic ocular pain after LASIK to address the aforementioned purpose

Conclusions : Our results suggest that postoperative acute ocular pain after LASEK presents a characteristic evolution. The pain increased rapidly during the first 9 h after surgery. It peaked at 24 h in the moderate to severe range and it was then stable until 36 h before it began to decrease until 72 h.
Our working hypothesis is that music may have an adjuvant analgesic effect in the postoperative period of LASEK surgery, reducing the amount of analgesia required during the first 72 hours

This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.