Music in the Operating Room Not Safe: Study

Music has been widely known to affect one's mood and behavior. In fact, the Huffington Post reported just this June that according to a new study, listening to heavy metal may actually help calm down an angry person. Music has even been used to influence consumer spending. In 2011, Griffith Hack reported that "the right music can result in increased sales, or increased sales of targeted products, while the wrong music can actually decrease sales and damage a business."

In December 2014, the Atlantic reported that music in the operating room has helped both surgeons and patients go through the process of surgery. Music played an integral part because according to Dr. David Bosanquet, a surgical registrar at the University Hospital of Wales, "more and more procedures are being done with the patient awake. Patients who have been terrified of the thought of going through an operation can be helped with their favorite artists and songs."

Additionally, when patients are asked if they would like to have some music played, Bosanquet relays that patients say yes "9 out f 10 times".

However, a new study shows that there is, in fact, a downside to playing music in the operating room, Yahoo News reports. Sharon-Marie Weldon, a senior researcher at Imperial College London and her colleagues filmed 20 operations in Britain over a course of 6 months. Out of the 20 operations, 16 had music playing during the course of the operation. In 5,000 instances where a request requiring a response was made by a doctor or staff member, "repeated requests were five times more likely to occur in cases that played music than those that did not."

"Music in the operating theatre can interfere with team communication, but is seldom recognized as a potential safety hazard," the study, which was published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, explained.

BBC reports that according to Weldon, "Music can be helpful to staff working in operating theatres where there is often a lot of background noise, as well as other distractions--it can improve concentration. That said, we'd like to see a more considered approach, with much more discussion or negotiation over whether music is played, the type of music and volume within the operating teams."

However, Royal College of Surgeons recommends that if music is played during any operation, it "must not be distracting."

The study concluded, "Regardless of whether music can increase surgeons' concentration and mask extraneous noise, anything that might impair team communication might place patients safety in jeopardy."