Mental Fatigue Evaluation of Surgical Teams during a Regular Workday in a High-Volume Tertiary Healthcare Center

Abstract

Introduction: Considering the complex set of manual and psychological tasks a surgeon has to perform during the day, it is very important to assess the surgeon's fatigability, reaction time, attention, and memory. Objective: Here, we wanted to determine the mental fatigue status of surgeons and how their abilities are affected through a regular workday. Methods: We included 3 senior urologists and 6 urology residents. In a set period of time, we assessed their fatigue through self-assessed fatigue, Samn-Perelli score, and Karolinska sleepiness scale score. Further, reaction time, attention, and memory correlated with the number of the operations in the day, and total number of operations in that day were assessed. Results: As the number of tasks increases, and as the surgeons advance to the end of the workday, they become more fatigued, reaction time ultimately increases, and attention and memory become slightly altered. Conclusions: Complications resulting from the fatigue of surgeons could be serious. Their performance status and skills decrease as they perform more tasks or advance through the day.