In many operating rooms, the iPod is as vital
a tool as a scalpel. A 1994 Journal of the American Medical Association
study reported that surgeons performed better when they listened to music
they had chosen. As these surgeons note, music can serve very particular
purposes.
TO GET PUMPED: “At the
beginning of a total shoulder replacement, the Rolling
Stones’ ‘Jumpin’ Jack
Flash’ gets your adrenaline going. It feels like game time.” —Dan
Reilly, hand and shoulder surgeon, Hand Surgery Specialists
Inc., Cincinnati
TO SUSTAIN MORALE: “When things are going badly during a liver transplant,
I put on Mike and the Mechanics’ ‘All I Need Is a Miracle.’” —C.
Wright Pinson, chief medical officer and professor
of surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center,
Nashville
TO KEEP UP A RHYTHM: “My cases require a lot of suturing, which
is repetitive work. I listen to Motown because it’s basically the
same kind of music over and over. It calms me down and helps me concentrate.” —Jennifer
Butterfield, plastic surgeon, Women’s Plastic Surgery and Rejuvenation
Center, Cincinnati
TO UNWIND: “I
like to play Frank Sinatra during the middle of the
operation. When you’re closing up a patient, it’s
rock and roll time: Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses and occasionally
Metallica. Friday afternoons, by law, you have to listen
to Barry White.” —S. Russell Vester,
chairman and heart surgeon, Cardiac, Vascular and Thoracic Surgeons,
Cincinnati 
Back to top
Photo by Devon Jarvis
|
