European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

THE IMPACT OF NOISE IN THE OPERATING ROOM STUDY IN SEVERAL SURGICAL SPECIALTIES

*Dr. Luiz Eduardo Imbelloni, MD, PhD, Marcos Kaoru Mori, MD, Aurélio Arabori, MD, Daniel Hungerbuhler, MD, Eduardo Piccinini Viana, MD, Jaime Weslei Sakamoto, MD, André Augusto de Araujo, MD and Geraldo Borges de Morais Filho, MSc

ABSTRACT

Background: Environmental noise pollution is regarded as a general stressor for all citizens. The noise levels recommended by the WHO are often exceeded in hospitals, mainly in the operating room. The objective of this study is to analyze noise patterns during 53 surgical procedures of 11 different specialties. Methods: During two months, the noise was observed in all the rooms. The noise level in the hospital's different OR was measured using the official application of NIOSH (National Institute Occupational Safety and Health) with a cell phone used exclusively for this function. No attempt was made to interfere with, record or control conversation or music during surgery. To assess the noise, the sound scale in decibels (dB) was used. The study evaluated different sources of equipment noise, as well as conversation and music. Data were descriptively analyzed by the quantitative method using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets imported to the R Commander platform of the R 4.1.0 software. Results: Eleven surgical specialties were evaluated. The average noise levels dB (A) were found between 53.10 and 69.70 dB. And the average maximum value dB (B) was between 90.30 and 118.50 dB. The highest average level and the maximum noise were found in oral-maxillary and orthopedics surgeries. The least noisy specialty was vascular surgery. There is no significant difference between the mean noise and the mean maximum noise between the different specialties. There was a significant difference with the different devices used and also with conversation and music. Conclusion: It showed that the different categories of surgery examined in this study proved that buccomaxillary and orthopedic surgery have very different noises levels during the surgical time, and higher than the other surgeries studied.

Keywords: Effects of noise, noise, operating room, operating room noise, surgery specialties.