The Effect of Recorded Maternal Voice on Perioperative Anxiety and Emergence in Children (Report‪)‬

We were interested in methods to minimise distress for children having cardiac catheterisation. Many agents and combinations have been used to administer anaesthesia for paediatric cardiac catheterisation, but none has been shown to be superior (1-3). Various non-pharmacological methods to reduce the anxiety of patients scheduled for anaesthesia have been studied, with inconsistent results4. Auditory support, such as music, has been shown to decrease sedative requirements and sympathetic tone in general or regional anaesthesia (5,6). This effect has also been demonstrated in paediatric patients (7). Parental presence has also been investigated, although its effect on patient anxiety and anaesthetic requirements is still controversial (8-10). The aim of this randomised controlled trial was to assess the impact of hearing a recording of children's own mothers' voices on sedative/ anaesthesia requirements, perioperative anxiety and emergence agitation of paediatric patients undergoing cardiac catheterisation. Also, we examined the influence of this recording on parental anxiety before and after the procedure.