Smart Operating Room Music

To the Editor

Schlesinger et al.¹ assessed the ability of resident anesthesiologists to detect changes in pulse oximetry in a noisy operating room environment. Maybe we are asking the wrong question. Perhaps the question should be whether it is necessary to maintain high levels of ambient noise when our machines are telling us a patient is in trouble.

Given the ubiquity of music in today’s operating rooms, I suggest that we find a way to integrate our music systems with the anesthesia alarms. If the music suddenly stopped because the patient’s oxygen saturation had fallen <90%, it would command the attention of everybody in the room far more than the quietly descending pitch of the oximeter. Indeed, the abrupt stopping of music might be followed by cessation of noisy chitchat as well, focusing the entire operating room team on the safety of the patient.

This would be a welcome change from struggling to hear our alarms over the din of the party on the other side of the drapes.

Alistair MacDonald, MD

Missoula, Montana

[email protected]