Surgery...
Let Dr. Bee create a personalized message that will relieve your anxiety
and concerns, relax your body prior to surgery, and speed the healing
process with less post-surgery pain.
Dr. James Esdaile (1808-1859) was a
Scottish Physician practicing in India in the early 19th Century
who is the first "modern" physician who used hypnosis, then
called mesmerism as anesthesia for surgery. Esdaile took out
tumors, performed amputations, and whatever other surgery the
patient required using hypnotic techniques. Records from that
time indicate the mortality rate of major surgery was about 50%.
"In 161 cases operated on by Esdaile (using hypnotic
techniques), mortality dropped to 5%.
Esdaile performed his surgeries in India.
When he returned to Europe, his methods were not well received.
The medical establishment at the time discounted his
achievements and insisted that those who had operations were
just pretending not to hurt. In addition, Chloroform had just
been discovered as an effective way to anesthetize patients, so
hypnosis was relegated to the sidelines.
The art of anesthetizing patients prior to
surgery and other painful procedures requires vast skill and
knowledge because of the complexity of individual responses to
the various drugs used. Unfortunately, many of these drugs can
have serious adverse effects on the patient. So the possibility
of limiting or reducing the dosages is in the patient's
interests. Research indicates that when hypnosis is used prior
to surgery, less chemical anesthesia is required. In addition,
patients have fewer side-effects from anesthesia.
It took more than 100 years for the British
Medical Society to recognize and approve of the use of hypnosis
as an adjunct to traditional medicine. Hypnosis was approved by
the American Medical Association three years later, in 1958.
Today hypnosis is gaining credibility with
both the public and the medical establishment as an effective
tool to make surgery easier for both the patient and the medical
team. In addition, some studies have found that hypnosis lowers
the costs of procedures.
Click here to read what Dr. Bee's clients
have to say about their experiences.
PubMed is a service of the US National Library of
Medicine and the National Institute of Health. You can access
the site at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
Below are sample excerpts found when searching Hypnosis and
Surgery
The effectiveness of adjunctive
hypnosis with surgical patients: a meta-analysis.
Montgomery GH, David D, Winkel G, Silverstein JH, Bovbjerg DH
Biobehavioral Medicine Program, Cancer Prevention and Control,
Derald H. Ruttenberg Cancer Center, Mount Sinai School of
Medicine, 1 Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029-6574, USA.
IMPLICATIONS: A meta-analytical review of
studies using hypnosis with surgical patients was performed to
determine the effectiveness of the procedure. The results
indicated that patients in hypnosis treatment groups had better
clinical outcomes than 89% of patients in control groups. These
data strongly support the use of hypnosis with surgical
patients.
Hypnosis Before Breast-Cancer Surgery Reduces Pain,
Discomfort and Cost.
Women undergoing surgery for breast cancer
who received a brief hypnosis session before entering the operating
room required less anesthesia and pain medication during surgery and
reported less pain, nausea, fatigue, and discomfort after surgery
than women who did not receive hypnosis. The overall cost of surgery
was also significantly less for women undergoing hypnosis.
Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Sept. 5, 20
A randomized clinical trial of a brief
hypnosis intervention to control side effects in breast surgery
patients.
RESEARCHERS: Montgomery
GH, Bovbjerg DH, Schnur JB, David D, Goldfarb A, Weltz CR,
Schechter C, Graff-Zivin J, Tatrow K, Price DD, Silverstein JH.
Department of Oncological Sciences, Mount Sinai School of
Medicine, Box 1130, 1 Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY
10029-6574, USA.
BACKGROUND: Breast cancer surgery is
associated with side effects, including postsurgical pain,
nausea, and fatigue. We carried out a randomized clinical trial
to test the hypotheses that a brief presurgery hypnosis
intervention would decrease intraoperative anesthesia and
analgesic use and side effects associated with breast cancer
surgery and that it would be cost effective. Institutional costs
for surgical breast cancer procedures were $8561 per patient at
Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Patients in the hypnosis group
cost the institution $772.71 less per patient than those in the
control group (95% CI = 75.10 to 1469.89), mainly due to reduced
surgical time.
CONCLUSIONS: Hypnosis was
superior to attention control regarding propofol and lidocaine
use; pain, nausea, fatigue, discomfort, and emotional upset at
discharge; and institutional cost. Overall, the present data
support the use of hypnosis with breast cancer surgery patients
