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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Feb 18, 2026; 17(2): 113526
Published online Feb 18, 2026. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v17.i2.113526
Published online Feb 18, 2026. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v17.i2.113526
Music therapy for anxiety reduction in non-acute surgical fracture patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Yu-Lan Tang, Ying-Xin Zhao, Xiao Wang, School of Humanities and Management, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Tang YL have given substantial contributions to the conceptualization and investigation; Zhao YX contributions to the methodology, software and validation; Wang X contributions to supervision. All authors have participated to drafting the manuscript, and they all read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xiao Wang, School of Humanities and Management, Southwest Medical University, Hongxing Street, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China. wangxiao@mail.ru
Received: August 27, 2025
Revised: September 23, 2025
Accepted: November 25, 2025
Published online: February 18, 2026
Processing time: 160 Days and 18.9 Hours
Revised: September 23, 2025
Accepted: November 25, 2025
Published online: February 18, 2026
Processing time: 160 Days and 18.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This meta-analysis offers robust evidence that music therapy - an affordable, non-invasive intervention - effectively eases anxiety in patients recovering from non-acute surgical fractures. Its findings back the inclusion of music therapy in standard clinical rehabilitation protocols. This integration can enhance patients’ psychological outcomes and may reduce the need for pharmacological treatments, highlighting a practical, low-cost way to improve post-surgery care.