Nashville, Tenn.—A nursing initiative to assess noise in the OR has exposed the dangerous decibel levels encountered by surgical staff and patients on a daily basis, according to data presented at the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses 2019 Global Surgical Conference & Expo.
Noise measurements made in real time at randomly selected multisurgery specialty ORs revealed sound levels comparable to a hairdryer or bulldozer during critical times of surgery on both