SuzhouIn 192 patients, ear defenders cut nausea or vomiting from 52% to 35%.
Anaesthetised patients appear to process theatre noise, which averaged 66 decibels in the study.
Noise may trigger a stress response that engages brainstem nausea pathways, though the team did not test that mechanism.
All patients also received standard anti-nausea medication, so the headphones worked on top of drugs.
Huayue Liu of Soochow University hopes to run a larger multi-site trial measuring noise exposure against nervous system activity.
How each outlet framed it
- New Scientist
- presents the finding as evidence that anaesthesia is not an "off switch", tying the 192-patient trial to decades of brain-processing research
Sources: New Scientist