Computer games are as good as drugs at helping children relax before operations, a study found.
Boys and girls that played on an iPad ahead of surgery were just as calm as those given powerful sedatives.
And their parents were happier overall.
The find comes from a French study of 112 children aged four to ten who were having day surgery.
Computer games are as good as drugs at helping children relax before operations, a study found
Half were given a sedative ahead of the anaesthetic, to calm their nerves and to help the actual anaesthetic take better.
These 'pre-meds' are often given to young children but can also be used to help anxious adults relax.
The other youngsters were given an iPad loaded with games 20 minutes before being wheeled into the operating theatre.
Finally, the children, their parents and the theatre nurses were asked a battery of questions.
The answers revealed the iPads to be as good as the midazolam sedative at controlling the children's anxiety.
Plus,
the nurses were more satisfied and the parents were happier overall,
the World Congress of Anaesthesiologists annual conference in Hong Kong
heard.
Researcher
Dominique Chassard, of the Hospices Civils de Lyon, said: 'Our study
showed that child and parental anxiety before anaesthesia are equally
blunted by midazolam or use of the iPad.
'Use
of iPads or other tablet devices is a non-pharmacologic tool which can
reduce stress without any sedative effect in paediatric surgery.'
A teenage boy plays an Xbox 360 video game (stock photograph)
Dr
Chassard doesn't explain why the computer games were so helpful. But
possible reasons range from simple distraction to the familiarity of
playing on a computer making the experience feel less medical and so
less threatening.
Previous British research has found that a simple conversation can help patients relax during surgery.
The
University of Surrey study found chatting to a nurse and squeezing a
stress ball to be better at easing stress and pain than listening to
music or watching a film.
The
researchers said that having a nurse chat to a patient while holding
their hand could be a simple and inexpensive way of making operations
done without general anaesthetic more pleasant.
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