Background: This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of music therapy on the physiological outcomes for patients undergoing TKA surgery in the recovery unit.

Method: Fifty-six patients from Hospital Melaka were randomised into intervention (n=28) and control group (n=28) using a sealed envelope. Patients in intervention group received usual care and listened to music for 60 minutes while control group received usual care only. Patients were included if they were prescribed with patients controlled analgesia, fully conscious, have good hearing and visual acuity. All participants were measured for systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), heart rate (HR), respiration rate (RR) and oxygen saturation (SpO₂) on arrival, during 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes and 60 minutes in recovery unit.

Results: Using Mann-Whitney test, there was a significant difference in RR upon arrival in recovery (U=276.5, p = 0.029) and at 10 minutes (U = 291, p = 0.45). Friedman test and repeated measure ANOVA (RMANOVA) in terms of five periods between the two groups shows that there were significant differences in DBP (F=3.158, p=0.032), RR (χ2=15.956, p=0.003) and SpO2 (χ2 =14.084, p=0.007) for the intervention group.

Conclusions: This study indicated that no evidence of music therapy through physiological outcomes observation at recovery unit. However, patients verbally reported of comfort through listening to music. It is worth to explore further physiological outcomes in a larger sample size with different genre of music including the preference of local context.