Surgeons Trying Music to Cut Tension in Surgery

Morris Kugler likes to finish surgery to the sound of a British rock group, while some of his colleagues prefer cutting to classics or a country ‘n’ Western beat.

But regardless of their musical taste, they agree that rhythm cuts the tension in the surgical suite.

“After long cases, we need a pickup,” said Kugler, a vascular and general surgeon from Belleville who sometimes listens to the rock group Wham as he completes an operation.

“It is a pickup. It makes me feel better,” he said recently.

‘It’s Light Noise’

“It takes the edge off things,” added Dr. Robert Lander, an orthopedic surgeon at Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. “It’s light noise in the background. It’s more pleasing than the anesthesiology machine.”

At Memorial Hospital in Belleville, music first moved into the operating rooms to soothe patients who were awake under a local anesthetic during surgery, charge nurse Jan Oeltjen said.

“The patients were the prime concern,” she said. “It gives them something to distract their thoughts. They like it.”

But surgeons like Kugler also feel the need to reduce distractions and like the effect music provides.

‘Keeps the Crew at Ease’

“It makes the operating room a very tranquil place,” he said. “It just calms the situation. . . . It keeps the whole crew at ease.”

At Memorial, the most popular choices are classical music and soft ballads by such artists as Johnny Mathis and Neil Diamond.

But at Oliver C. Anderson Hospital in Maryville, surgeons listen to an eclectic mix including--but not limited to--classical, country and rock, said Judy Fritsch, the hospital’s operating room supervisor.

One surgeon, she said, plays tapes of the church choir in which he sings.

First Offered Earphones

Operating rooms at Jewish Hospital began playing music about nine years ago and initially offered earphones to patients under local anesthesia, Lander said. But surgeons and nurses decided that they wanted music too, so tape players were brought in.

Dr. William Shieber, the head of vascular surgery at Jewish Hospital, says he prefers classical music as he works.

“I don’t know how much I actually hear it when I’m working and concentrating,” Shieber said. “But at least it’s not offensive like rock music. That really grates on me.”

But when it comes to selection, the surgeons sometimes get a second opinion--the patient’s.

“It’s whatever they like,” Landers said. “When the patient is asleep, I usually fight with the nurses.”