A stressed surgeon performs his operation better

If your surgeon seems stressed before an operation, don’t worry… on the contrary! According to a new study published in the journal JAMA Surgerythe higher the stress at the start of an operation, the fewer complications there are for the patient after the operation.

Sympathovagal balance to measure surgeon stress

During their work, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital de Bostonin the United States, studied data from 793 procedures performed by 38 surgeons from four hospitals. The median age of these health professionals was 46 years. This information was collected between November 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021. Thus, the researchers observed that the median heart rate of surgeons was 88 beats per minute.

But, to measure their stress, the researchers did not choose heart rate as a criterion butsympathovagal balance. This indicator is generally measured by the heart rate variability (HRV), that is to say the variation over time between two heartbeats. This is influenced by various factors such as physical activity, lifestyle, sleep, eating habits and even smoking.

Fewer complications when the surgeon is stressed

Using data collected from surgeons, researchers made a surprising discovery: increasing the surgeon’s sympathovagal balance during the first five minutes of surgery was associated with a significant reduction in major complications for patients. In other words, the more stressed the surgeon is at the start of the procedure, the better it goes.

“Increased surgeon stress at the start of a procedure was associated with improved patient clinical outcomeswrite the authors. Results illustrate the complex relationship between physiological stress and performance [et] identify a novel association between measurable surgeon human factors and patient outcomes.”