Also in the regular ‘Hypnosis In The News’ section of the podcast, I make reference to a couple of online videos that I think anyone with an interest in
hypnosis should have seen, and should be sharing far and wide on a regular basis. I thought I'd share them here too.
For me if you ever need a reminder of the sheer level of awesomeness of the hypnosis field that we work in, then this video really ought to do the job
for you, it certainly does for me.
This is an article which includes video taken of brain surgery being conducted using hypnosis for anaesthesia.
The hypnosis procedure, which replaces general anaesthetics, was used on 37 patients undergoing surgery to remove brain tumours,
researchers reported in the journal Neurosurgery at the end of last year. It was a smallish study agreed, but the authors conclude that their small study's success suggests hypnosis could be a viable tool to help sedate patients during delicate brain surgery.
Usually, anaesthesiologists put patients to sleep for the start of such a surgery—while the skull is opened—rouse them in the middle, then
put them back to sleep for the surgical wrap-up. The technique is referred to simply as the asleep-awake-asleep (AAA) procedure. But, it has two main drawbacks: doctors have to monitor and manage the patient’s breathing during the already-involved surgery; and, it can take some patients (particularly older ones) a while to fully wake up from anaesthesia, which lengthens surgery time.
To see if
hypnosis could be a viable alternative, researchers at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Tours, France, pitched the method to brain cancer patients. These patients all needed an awake surgery to remove a certain type of brain tumour that arises in glial cells (support cells in the brain), called glioma. For the hypnosis sedation to work, patients had to meet with a hypnotist a few weeks before the surgery and practice the process.
In all, the researchers conducted 43 surgeries with patients using hypnosis.
The authors conclude. “It requires intense involvement and long training of the whole team, including the patient,” the authors wrote. “Therefore, the method we describe is limited by the necessity to work with an anesthetic team experienced in both
neuro-anesthesiology and hypnotherapy.”
The study also has a big flaw: it didn't include a control group. This makes it impossible to compare the pros and cons of hypnosedation to AAA. The authors acknowledge this and conclude that AAA is still the gold standard and, overall, hypnosedation is not optimal.
But, it may be a useful alternative for some patients, they note. In questionnaires and assessments taken after the surgeries, most patients reported positive experiences and little to no psychological impacts from the generally tough operation. Only two of the 37 patients said they wouldn’t use hypnosis again.
The awesomeness of the video is only equalled, for me, by the
2006…..
I talk about this show a great deal on my training courses. It was a live broadcast on More4 channel a while back now whereby the value of using hypnosis for pain control and anaesthesia was showcased, it is a must see for any hypnosis professional or person interested in the hypnotherapy field.
Hypnosurgery Live: A live television broadcast in Britain (April 2006) demonstrates the latent power and potential of the human mind. A man has a tumour surgically removed from his stomach without the use of any pain removing drugs whatsoever. To accomplish this task, physical sensation is muted in the body via the use of hypnosis.
Official More4 description: Presented by Sarah Smith, this two hour special asks whether hypnosis should be more widely available to people unsuited to, too weak for, or afraid of conventional anaesthetics. The programme includes discussion and debate as well as live and archive examples of the efficacy of hypnosis in a surgical context, and culminates in a live hernia operation being performed under hypnosis with no anaesthetic at all. Should the technique be more widely
available in the NHS? Could it potentially save lives, offer wider patient choice and speed the recovery process?
