Ergonomics in the operating room - from the anesthesiologist's point of view

Over the past years, progress in medicine and the development of a multitude of new devices have made the tasks to be performed in operating rooms increasingly complex; at the same time, more and more equipment is necessary to perform these tasks and make surgery as safe as possible for the patients. These developments are also relevant for the field of anesthetic care; when planning new operating rooms or restructuring existing ones, attention should be paid to provide the anesthesia team with an adequate work environment so that all anesthetic procedures can be carried out safely and efficiently and an optimal workflow can be established in the OR environment. The present paper illuminates this topic from various angles, discussing questions of space requirements, monitoring, alarm systems, equipment design, documentation and human factors. All these individual considerations should ultimately be integrated into a coherent approach which could serve as guidance in the planning of effective and ergonomic anesthesia workplaces for the future.