Sing it loud, sing it clear, for the whole surgery team to hear

Stunning surgical steps were made this week when a patient, a talented singer, sang through her surgery to protect her vocal chords. Unfortunately for the singer, a tumour had to be removed, but instead of risking the general anaesthetic, the team chose hypnosis and singing to allow the surgeon to work round her precious vocal chords. Many of you may be as interested in the use of hypnosis as much as the singing through surgery, as hypnosurgery is a fascinating field, albeit largely in experimental stages – even though it’s been around for a long time. There’s a brilliant history of hypnosis in a clinical context in this article and, as anaesthetics are rapidly developing, every Medic, Biomedical Scientist and Nat Sci (B) student should make sure they’re up fully in the loop on this.