Woman Reduces Preoperative Hypertension by Singing Before Surgery

In an interesting development, doctors reported that a woman’s blood pressure dropped, not because of pharmacological interventions, but due to her ability to sing. The said woman was 76 years of age, and was in need of total knee replacement surgery for osteoarthritis (OA).

Since she was experiencing severe preoperative hypertension before the surgery, doctors tried to intervene with medication but to no avail. However, after singing a few religious songs, it was revealed that the blood pressure of the patient has dropped substantially that they could carry on with the operation.

This is not surprising due to the fact that several studies have indicated that listening to music can be really helpful in reducing blood pressure to the extent that the surgery can be carried out successfully as opposed to administering medication such as calcium-channel blockers, beta blockers, diuretics, and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors that have been known to not produce any positive results in the past.

In several studies, it is shown that an alternative therapy for high blood pressure and the control of pain before surgery could be found through the form of music, whether it means listening to music or asking the patient to sing.

But in order for music to be considered an alternative and be a formally accepted form of therapy, experts, with this case study, have realized that a little more research should bring about a breakthrough in being able to find solutions for preoperative hypertension that occurs before a surgical procedure.