The American College of Surgeons recently shared its 2024 OR playlist to mark World Music Day last month.

Announcing it on X, they posted: ‘We’re back at it with an O.R. playlist made up of real favourites from our surgeons – from classical music to modern pop to some from @drmlb’s (Mary Le Brant Emeritus Professor of Surgery, Paediatrics, and Medical Ethics) very own OR mix!’

Offering 100 songs and seven and a half hours of music, the introduction on Spotify reads: ‘Our 2024 #WorldMusicDay OR playlist infuses your suggestions of classical music and modern pop with a sprinkle of hits from the newly released Apple Music 100 Best Albums list. It’s an eclectic mix of tunes.’

The songs include two of this year’s Glastonbury headliners SZA and Dua Lipa, and woman of the moment Taylor Swift.

And there are some old-school favourites, too, with Aretha Franklin, Elton John and Kiki Dee (Don’t go breaking my heart one for the cardiac team perhaps) and inevitably, The Beatles with Let It Be (or not if you’re halfway through a procedure) making the cut.

Inevitably, among the list were the classics – including Tchaikovsky, Holst, Beethoven and Mozart.

You can download the playlist, In the O.R. (2024), here.

But what is the history of music in the OR?

Dr Terhi Korkiakangas was part of a team of researchers who, taking into account both the benefits and the risks, advocated for the whole OR team to make the decision to play music during an operation.

In an observational project on teamwork in the operating rooms of a London teaching hospital, music was often played through mobile phones and iPods, with modern theatre suites equipped with docking stations and speakers.

She said: ‘Music has a long history in the world of surgery. Dating back to 1914, music was played through a gramophone to relax surgical patients. Rules were in place for not playing jazz or sentimental tunes; instead, soft smoothing music was deemed acceptable. A body of work suggests that surgeons perform better when music is playing: it can help concentration and make surgeons operate faster. Some surgeons tell us how music masks white noise and other distracting talk in the theatre.’

Another study used AC/DC and The Beatles to ascertain the effect of different music genres and amplitudes on laparoscopic performance.

The authors concluded, ‘A generally well-accepted music genre in the right volume could improve the performance of novice surgeons during laparoscopic surgeries.’

However, trainee surgeon and musician Anantha Narayanan, who investigated the potential of music in the operating room, suggests that while playing some top tunes may or may not be beneficial, musical taste will always remain up for discussion.

‘Many questions remain about the relationship between music and surgery. Does the type of music matter? Why isn’t jazz played more often? Who chooses the music? If there’s a disagreement, how should consensus be reached?’

Musical tastes vary widely among individuals – and that includes teams in the OR. What serves as a vital and inspiring playlist for one person might be irritating or distracting to someone else.

The big question is whether it is possible to nail a playlist that delivers the perfect musical backdrop for the whole operating room team.