Effect of Intraoperative Hemispheric Synchronized Sounds on Depth of Anesthesia and Postoperative Pain in Children Undergoing Infraumbilical Surgery: A Double‐Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: Binaural beats have been shown to have sedative effects in adults. Our study aimed to evaluate the effect of hemispheric synchronized sounds on depth of anesthesia primarily and postoperative pain relief in children. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of Intraoperative hemispheric synchronized sounds on depth of anesthesia in children undergoing infraumbilical surgeries receiving caudal epidural block along with general anesthesia. We also determined postoperative pain and analgesic requirement. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A double blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in India on 60 children between the ages of 6 months to 7 years planned for elective infraumbilical surgery under general anesthesia with caudal epidural block. The study subjects were allocated into two equal groups, Group-S (headphones applied, blank file played) and Group-H (headphones applied, hemispheric synchronized sounds played). Bispectral index (BIS) values were recorded every 5 min till the end of the procedure; duration of sound file played and FLACC score at 60 min and 24 h after surgery were also recorded. RESULTS: The study conducted in the pediatric population had a mean age of 4.02 ± 2.08 in group H and 4.77 ± 2.16 in group S. Both groups had comparable gender distribution (66.6% males in group H and 76.6% males in group S). The mean ± SD Intraoperative BIS values were 47.18 ± 9.77 in Group H and 54.32 ± 6.15 in group S (p = 0.001). The median (IQR) postoperative FLACC score at 60 min in group S was 0 (0-1) and group H was 0 (0-1) (p = 0.539). The postoperative FLACC score at 24 h was 0 in both groups. CONCLUSION: In our study, we observed that these sounds deepened the plane of anesthesia and had no evidence of a statistically significant difference in postoperative pain scores. We conclude that they may be used as part of a multimodal therapy to reduce the requirement of pharmacological anesthetic agents thereby alleviating their short-term and long-term effects. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical Trials Registry of India: CTRI/2021/10/037216.