Music Makes the Stitching Go Faster

When surgeons listen to music they prefer, stitching prowess and speed when closing incisions is improved, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB; Galveston, USA) conducted a study among 15 plastic surgery residents to evaluate the effect of music on simple wound closure. The residents were asked to perform layered closures on pigs' feet with and without their preferred music playing. The residents were assigned randomly to the music playing first or music playing second group. The time to complete the repair was measured, and repairs were graded by blinded faculty. The participants were retested in a second session with music played in the opposite order to evaluate consistency.

The residents were not informed of the purpose of the study, or that their results were being timed and graded. The results showed that listening to preferred music decreased repair time by 8% for all plastic surgery residents. A subgroup analysis demonstrated even more significant improvement in speed for senior residents, resulting in a 10% decrease in repair time. The quality of repair was also better in the music group. Retesting revealed results remained significant whether music was played first or second. The study was published on July 10, 2015, in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal.

“We recognized that our subjects could potentially improve on the second repair simply as the result of repetition. This effect was reduced by randomly assigning the residents to music first or no music first groups,” said lead author Shelby Lies, MD, chief plastic surgery resident at UTMB. “Spending less time in the operating room can translate into significant cost reductions, particularly when incision closure is a large portion of the procedure, such as in a tummy tuck. Longer duration under general anesthesia is also linked with increased risk of adverse events for the patient.”

Few studies that have analyzed the effects of music in the operating room, but most have found that music generally has a positive influence on a surgeon’s performance. A recent study suggests that classical music affected surgeons more positively than hard rock or heavy metal. Another study found that hip-hop and reggae most benefited surgeons’ performances. Multiple studies have indicated that patients also appear more relaxed, require less anesthesia, and recover quicker when physicians play tunes during surgery.

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University of Texas Medical Branch