Noise level and surgeon stress during thyroidectomy in an endocrine surgery operating room.

Our research is the first such study which has been done to assess noise levels and their effect on thyroidectomy using objective salivary cortisol measurement. It challenges the misconstrued notion that visceral surgeries requiring lesser instruments are not associated with noise-related stress. Noise is a major distraction and the effect of long-term effect on the entire surgical team needs to be studied.