Overview
- A randomized trial presented at ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026 found 35.4% of patients who wore over-the-head noise-canceling headphones experienced postoperative nausea and vomiting within 48 hours versus 52.1% of controls.
- The study enrolled 192 adults having minimally invasive gynecologic surgery under general anesthesia and randomized patients to wear commercially available headphones from induction to the end of surgery or to receive usual care.
- All participants received the same anesthetic and standard anti-nausea medication, and the headphone group had less severe PONV in the first 24 hours with no increase in adverse events reported.
- Operating-room sound averaged about 66 decibels in the study, and authors say this level could trigger residual auditory or autonomic processing under anesthesia that contributes to PONV.
- Lead authors call the finding preliminary because it was shown at a conference rather than in a peer-reviewed journal and they recommend further trials, objective noise and physiologic measurements, and testing in other surgeries before practice changes.