Sleep-deprived surgeons may be putting their patients at risk for life-threatening complications that could be avoided with a good night's sleep.
Their study found that 14 surgeons in training who got less than 3 hours of sleep after working a 17-hour shift made significantly more errors when performing laparoscopic surgery, a minimally invasive procedure, due in part to lack of concentration and coordination. The surgeons were not operating on real patients, but were using a "virtual reality" surgery system.
The surgeons also took longer to perform certain tasks associated with the surgery.
A potential risk for compromising patient safety exists with the current system where doctors may need to perform surgery after a sleepless night. Hospitals should ensure that a sufficient number of doctors are available to share workloads and stop the common practice of allowing physicians to work after a night during which they are "on call," or available for emergencies.
British Medical Journal November 24, 2001;323:1222-1223
Some physicians believe that they are somehow immune to normal physiological requirements. Of course, this is just not true. Additionally, there are surgical residents in training who really do not have a choice in the selection of how much sleep they can receive.
Fortunately most of us are not having surgery performed in a training center where this is a real issue. If you or someone you know is having a surgical procedure, you will want to make certain that your surgeon has had enough sleep the last few nights before it.
If you can’t confirm that I would encourage you to consider canceling and rescheduling the surgery. You need to look out for yourself. It is clear that the medical profession in general is not doing that for you since they are directly or indirectly responsible for being the third leading cause of death in the US.
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