I find music to be relaxing. Without it, the operating room seems real quiet. You hear the anesthesia machine going and people talking. Music changes the atmosphere and gives me a warm feeling. Surgery may have the strongest placebo effect of any intervention we have.
Many patients seem to get better just from being in an operating room.
A person's psychological makeup plays an important role in how they respond to physical injuries and problems, and that psychological factor can be used to improve the patient's symptoms. The setting and the personal interaction between the doctor, who explains what is going on, and the patient also plays an important part in the eventual outcome. In our latest study, we operated on 180 patients with osteoarthritis. All of the patients were given a mild sedative and all were awake 30 minutes later, but only the ones receiving a surgical procedure had full anesthesia. We tracked the patients for two years, and we're only a month away from having our last follow-up visit.