A combination of hypnosis and local anesthesia could improve outcomes for certain types of surgery, in addition to reducing drug use and length of stay, according to a press release by the European Society of Anaesthesiology.
A study presented at the European Anaesthesiology Congress in Amsterdam analyzed the impact of local anesthesia and hypnosis on certain kinds of breast cancer surgery and thyroidectomy. The researchers concluded that in all the procedures, local anesthesia was feasible but not enough to ensure patient comfort.
In the first study, 18 women out of 78 had hypnosis for a number of breast cancer surgical procedures, while the rest underwent general anesthetic for the same operations. Although the hypnotized patients spent a few more minutes in the OR, opioid drug use, recovery room stay and hospital stay were greatly diminished in the first group compared to the second.