Music
Doctors warn against listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers during surgery
by Tyler Munro
December 16, 2014
Surgeons, like anyone else, do things to their own rhythm. And like a lot of people, they like to work to music.
Studies say that playing music in the operating theatre helps surgeons concentrate, reduces anxiety levels in patients, and benefits efficiency and communication between team members. That makes sense. More surprising are the songs themselves: While a lot of surgeons prefer classical music to, say, Metallica, there’s surprising variety in their playlists.
“Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees is an obvious choice, since its tempo’s similarities to the rhythm of the human heartbeat are well documented. Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” is another popular, perhaps more concerning favourite. But when it comes to plastic surgery, cosmetic doctors most definitely don’t want Chilli Willy.
According to a study published by the British Medical Journal, plastic surgeons at the Hospital of Wales avoid “Scar Tissue” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In recovery, songs like Wham!’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” is a popular choice.
If anything, it seems to boil down to straight-up interpretation. It’s logical that a surgeon focused on aesthetics would avoid a song about scarring, even if the metaphor is less direct, same as it’s reasonable to play a song about waking up to someone in recovery. That said, hearing George Michael’s voice while coming out of a coma sounds less settling than, say, that of your family or significant other.
Still, the numbers support it: Music is played between 60 and 70 percent of the time in the operating theatre, and doctors stand by the practice.
David Bosanquet carried out the study and says that music helps “dumb down the alien noises you get in hospitals,” acting as sort of a regulator of ambient sounds for nervous patients.
He says music “can be even better than a pre-med for patients waiting to go under the knife,” adding that it also helps revive them post-procedure.
That said, if we ever hear our doctor spinning “Another One Bites the Dust,” we’d be out of there before John Deacon could finish that signature bass line. [h/t Telegraph]
