PMID- 17550167
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20070703
LR  - 20220330
IS  - 0001-4966 (Print)
IS  - 0001-4966 (Linking)
VI  - 121
IP  - 5 Pt1
DP  - 2007 May
TI  - Noise in the operating rooms of Johns Hopkins Hospital.
PG  - 2673-80
AB  - Very little reliable information exists on the sound levels present in an 
      operating room environment. To remedy this situation, sound pressure levels of 
      the operating rooms in Johns Hopkins Hospital were monitored before, during, and 
      after operations. The data were analyzed to determine background sound levels, 
      average equivalent sound levels L(eq), frequency distribution, and peak sound 
      pressure levels L(peak). Each surgery was matched to the period of noise it 
      produced permitting the association of sound levels with particular types of 
      surgeries and the determination of various sound measures for classes of surgery 
      (e.g., orthopedic, neurological, etc.). Averaging over many surgeries, orthopedic 
      surgery was found to have the highest L(eq) at approximately 66 dB(A). 
      Neurosurgery, urology, cardiology, and gastrointestinal surgery followed closely, 
      ranging from 62 to 65 dB(A). By considering the L(peak) along with the L(eq) 
      values, a pattern emerges for the various surgical divisions. Gastrointestinal 
      and thoracic surgery are relatively quiet among the surgical divisions. 
      Neurosurgery and orthopedics have sustained high sound levels. Cardiology surgery 
      has a more moderate average sound level but includes brief periods of extremely 
      high peak sound levels. For neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery, peak levels 
      exceeded 100 dB over 40% of the time. The highest peak levels routinely seen 
      during surgery were well in excess of 120 dB.
FAU - Kracht, Jonathan M
AU  - Kracht JM
AD  - Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
FAU - Busch-Vishniac, Ilene J
AU  - Busch-Vishniac IJ
FAU - West, James E
AU  - West JE
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - United States
TA  - J Acoust Soc Am
JT  - The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
JID - 7503051
SB  - IM
MH  - Cardiology/statistics & numerical data
MH  - Communication
MH  - Environment
MH  - Gastroenterology/statistics & numerical data
MH  - *Hospitals
MH  - Humans
MH  - Neurosurgery/statistics & numerical data
MH  - Noise/*adverse effects
MH  - *Operating Rooms
MH  - Orthopedics/statistics & numerical data
MH  - Speech
MH  - Time Factors
EDAT- 2007/06/07 09:00
MHDA- 2007/07/04 09:00
CRDT- 2007/06/07 09:00
PHST- 2007/06/07 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2007/07/04 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2007/06/07 09:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1121/1.2714921 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Acoust Soc Am. 2007 May;121(5 Pt1):2673-80. doi: 10.1121/1.2714921.