Spinal surgery patients exposed to increased sunlight in their hospital rooms used 22% less pain medication per hour than those not exposed to the additional sunlight, said Jeffrey M. Walch of the University of Pittsburgh and his colleagues.
In the prospective study, 44 patients were situated on the bright side and 45 patients on the dim side of the same hospital unit. Their mean age was 59 years, and the mean length of stay was 3.5 days (Psychosom. Med. 2005;67:156–63).
Patients on the bright side of the unit received 46% more natural light than the patients on the dim side. The colors of the hospital rooms and the patients' gowns were alike, so they were not confounding factors.
Patients exposed to additional sunlight spent 21% less on pain medication, compared with the other patients. Upon discharge from the hospital, those patients who were from the bright side also reported significantly less perceived stress and slightly less pain, although the difference in reported pain was not statistically significant.
“An optimal therapeutic hospital design may maximize sunlight exposure for patients with high use of analgesic medication,” Mr. Walch and his associates noted. A reduction in opioid use, they added, could improve the dose-dependent side effects common in postoperative patients.