Effect of music on resident performance in laparoscopic surgery

Editor's Note

This study from Spectrum Health, Michigan State University School of Medicine, Grand Rapids, measures the effect of different genres of music on surgical residents’ performance in laparoscopic surgery.

Among the findings:

• 64% ranked pop music as their favorite
• 17% ranked classic rock as their favorite
• 11% ranked country as their favorite
• 8% ranked classical music as their favorite.
• Peg transfer and intracorporeal knot tying were completed fastest with pop music (57.4 and 109.6 seconds, respectively) and slowest with classical music (61.4 and 148.1seconds, respectively).

The researchers concluded that pop music was the residents’ favorite genre and facilitated the fastest surgical task completion time, but no genre was statistically significant in improving resident performance.