Study: Surgeon performance benefits from ‘warm-up’

Editor's Note

In this study from the UK, researchers found a robust relationship between a surgeon’s daily OR schedule and surgical performance (indexed by duration of procedure).

The researchers say surgeons should reorder their OR schedule, starting their days with the simpler cases and building up to the more difficult ones. In addition, they say that rather than having a mix of cases, surgeons should try to group similar cases together so they are repeatedly performing the same procedure.

The study was based on an analysis of the records of more than a quarter of a million surgical procedures performed at 38 UK hospitals.

After controlling for factors that affect surgical outcomes (eg, age, severity of illness), the researchers found that surgeons completed the second like procedure more quickly than the first. Reduction in operating time was consistent across the majority of procedures analyzed and resulted in more than 6% of operating time.

If surgeons switched between procedures, there was a lengthening of time taken to complete the different procedure by an average of just under 6.5%.

The researchers now hope to build on the findings by trying to identify a technique or process that would enable surgeons to ‘warm up’ before they make their first incisions.