Can't Stop the Music? Musical Hallucinations From Postoperative Tramadol Use: Case Report and Literature Review.

ABSTRACT: Tramadol is an overall safe and increasingly used alternative to traditional opioid medications for pain relief in the acute postoperative period. However, it does have a set of common and rarer, possibly life altering, side effects including severe hallucinations, and more specifically, discrete musical hallucinations. A 79-year-old female status post revision hip arthroplasty was started on Tramadol so that she could stop taking oxycodone. Within 3 days of the initiation of this medication, symptoms of severe musical hallucinations began. The symptoms continued for multiple weeks, were too difficult to assess causation, and resolved within 7 days of the cessation of tramadol use. This case describes a rare adverse effect of Tramadol, musical hallucinations, which led to the patient devel

SUBMITTER: Hughes AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12799791 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature