X-Message-Number: 19985 From: "John de Rivaz" <> Subject: Doctors Blunder When Lacking Slumber Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2002 20:23:50 +0100 From InfoBeat: >>> Doctors Blunder When Lacking Slumber The long hours of doctors-in-training take their toll in the form of duller minds and fumbling fingers and may be harming patients, new research has found. In reviewing 50 previous studies of fatigue and medical residents, researchers found that sleep deprivation affects both a doctor's cognitive ability -- the skill needed to read a heart monitor correctly, for example -- and surgical precision, reports HealthScout News. One study found that complication rates were 45 percent higher for surgical residents who'd been "on call" the night before. Two others of simulated laparoscopy found that residents performed worse and needed more time to operate on post-call mornings. How much, if at all, sleep deprivation among residents contributes to the estimated 44,000 to 98,000 deadly hospital errors each year in this country isn't known, the researchers said. The effects of little rest on the doctors themselves are clearer. Residents face a sharply higher rate of deadly car accidents during their training, especially in the hours when they are no longer on call. The findings appear in tomorrow's Journal of the American Medical Association. <<<< This is particularly "amusing" on the basis that it is illegal to drive a public service vehicle for more than so many hours, but apparently not illegal to perform surgery. -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://www.deRivaz.com : http://www.AlecHarleyReeves.com http://www.longevity-report.com : http://www.autopsychoice.com : http://www.cryonics-europe.org http://www.porthtowan.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19985