The effects of laparoscopic surgery on the operating room environment

The clutter of equipment and lines in today's operating room (OR) is increasing. This problem may present unnecessary hazards to traffic and adversely affect the performance of the surgical team. Endoscopic surgery is particularly affected by this problem because it requires additional equipment. This study offers surgeons' views about OR crowding and provides a detailed summary of the distribution of furniture, equipment, cables, and tubes during open and laparoscopic operations. We prospectively studied an unselected series of general surgical open (OP, n=10) and laparoscopic (LAP, n=10) operations performed at a major university teaching hospital.