Effect of music in the operating room

Music accompanies us every day. Whether having a morning coffee at home, on the way to work, as part of social media content or on TV. The type of music always influences our mood, perception and motivation. Parents use calm music to calm their children down, others motivate themselves with energetic sounds to exercise and filmmakers also use music to lure us out of the reserve and convey the mood of individual scenes alongside the visuals on the soundtrack. Then why shouldn't you also use music in the operating room?

Today, 53-72% of the operations are accompanied by background music. And not only to reassure the patient, but also to support the OR staff in their performance. Music entered the OR in 1914. There, Evan O'Neill Kane used the music to reduce the patient's anxiety and associated stress (Kane, 1914; Rastipisheh et al., 2019). Thereafter, gramophones entered the operating room (British Medical Journal 1931, p. 108). The positive effects of the musical sound system in the run-up to and during an operation were found to be a reduction in the release of cortisol, reduced pain perception, optimized body relaxation and an accelerated healing process (Allen and Blascovich, 1994).

Playing music during operations also affects the performance of the surgical team. According to a study that looked at 23 scientific publications on the effect of music during surgery on patients and operating room staff in recent years, the majority of the studies (17) reported positive effects (Rastipisheh et al., 2019). These include, among other things, increased precision, a relief of the mental strain on the team, a shorter duration of individual surgical steps, a higher focus and improved situational awareness, an increase in thinking ability and a reduced level of stress (Makama et al., 2010; Oomens et al. , 2019; Ullmann et al., 2008).

In order for the music to have its positive effect, the type of music, the volume and the experience of the surgeons should be taken into account when deciding whether and which music should be played (Rastipisheh et al., 2019).

Music is distracting, especially for inexperienced surgeons, and can negatively affect motor and cognitive abilities (Miskovic et al., 2008).

According to the studies, what type of music improves the team's performance cannot be generalized (Allen and Blascovich, 1994; Oomens, 2019). The music should be selected individually according to the preferences of the team. Not liking a particular genre can negatively impact performance. In addition to their own preferences, many surgeons also differentiate which music they want to hear based on the type of surgery. The streaming service Spotify has playlists that are named according to the type of music, the procedure, the desired mood or the surgical discipline: Surgery Rocks, Pop Surgery, Surgery Chill, Dental Surgery Music, Urologic Surgery, ... (Spotify AB , 2019).

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