[How does sleep deprivation during 24 hours on call duty affect the cognitive performance orthopaedic residents?]

Sleep deprivation is usually present in residents during their training program. The purpose of our study was to analyze the cognitive performance of a group of orthopaedic residents before and after 24 hours on call duty.

We include orthopaedic residents and their cognitive functions were evaluated by the following tests: Continuous Performance Test (CPT 2), Digit Spam (Versión 5), 1 letter Fonologic Fluence y Pasat Test. All the tests were done after a sleeping period at home of at least 6 hours and after being on call (sleeping less than 3 hours).

Nineteen residents were included in the study. The median age was 27 ± 1.89 and 15 were male. The mean hours of sleeping at home was 6.5 (range 6-8) and after on call duty was 1.5 (range 0.5-3). Statistical difference were found in CPT 2 test en terms of correct answers (p=0.007), omissions (p=0.004) and perseverations (p=0.036). No significant differences were found in the other tests.

Sleep deprivation after 24 hours on call duty affects cognitive performance of orthopaedic residents, increasing the number of errors and omissions.