Stressed-Out Surgeon? That's Good News for Patients!

Follow Drugslib on

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Jan 21, 2025.

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Jan. 21, 2025 -- Check out your surgeon as you’re wheeled into the operating room. Do they seem tense, on edge, or stressed out?

If so, that could be good news for you, a new study says.

The patients of stressed surgeons tend to suffer fewer major complications from surgery, according to findings of new study published in JAMA Surgery.

Like high-level athletes, experienced surgeons appear to work best under pressure, researchers concluded.

The findings show that “stress among experienced surgeons is associated with patient outcomes and may warrant attention from future efforts geared toward improving surgical care,” a research team led by Dr. Jake Awtry, a research fellow with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, concluded.

For the study, researchers monitored nearly 800 surgeries conducted by 38 attending surgeons.

The surgeons' average age was 46, and about 3 out of 5 were either professors or associate professors, the study says. The surgeons wore devices to track their heart rates while they operated.

The surgeries took place between November 2020 and December 2021 at four university hospitals in Lyon, France. They involved 14 surgical departments and seven specialties -- digestive, orthopedic, gynecologic, urologic, cardiac, thoracic and endocrine surgery.

Patients had a 37% lower risk of major complications if their surgeon’s heart rate revealed increased signs of stress at the start of an operation, researchers found.

But stress did not reduce significantly reduce risk of death or of requiring intensive care.

The findings run counter to previous studies linking surgeon stress to longer operations, impaired dexterity and potentially harmful events.

“Although excessive stress or cognitive workload may harm surgical performance, modest amounts of stress may stimulate better performance in individuals with requisite levels of experience and coping abilities,” the researchers concluded.

Elite athletes are able to focus and succeed under pressure, and it appears that good surgeons share that trait, a team led by Steven Yule, chair of behavioral sciences with the University of Edinburgh in the U.K., wrote in an accompanying editorial.

“These findings challenge the traditional view of stress as harmful in high-demand roles, mirroring decades of sports psychology research showing that moderate stress enhances performance,” they wrote.

Given this, they suggested that surgeons might benefit from the sort of pre-game stress management techniques practiced in locker rooms, to help them better focus on the operation before them.

“Applying these performance-enhancing techniques from professional sports to operating rooms has the potential to unlock unprecedented gains in outcomes and foster a resilient surgical culture,” the editorial concluded.

The findings and the editorial were published Jan. 15.

Sources

  • JAMA Surgery, Jan. 15, 2025

    • Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

    Source: HealthDay

    Posted : 2025-01-22 00:00

    Read more

    Disclaimer

    Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided by Drugslib.com is accurate, up-to-date, and complete, but no guarantee is made to that effect. Drug information contained herein may be time sensitive. Drugslib.com information has been compiled for use by healthcare practitioners and consumers in the United States and therefore Drugslib.com does not warrant that uses outside of the United States are appropriate, unless specifically indicated otherwise. Drugslib.com's drug information does not endorse drugs, diagnose patients or recommend therapy. Drugslib.com's drug information is an informational resource designed to assist licensed healthcare practitioners in caring for their patients and/or to serve consumers viewing this service as a supplement to, and not a substitute for, the expertise, skill, knowledge and judgment of healthcare practitioners.

    The absence of a warning for a given drug or drug combination in no way should be construed to indicate that the drug or drug combination is safe, effective or appropriate for any given patient. Drugslib.com does not assume any responsibility for any aspect of healthcare administered with the aid of information Drugslib.com provides. The information contained herein is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, warnings, drug interactions, allergic reactions, or adverse effects. If you have questions about the drugs you are taking, check with your doctor, nurse or pharmacist.

    Popular Keywords