Assessment of noise pollution and its effect on patients undergoing surgeries under regional anesthesia, is it time to incorporate noise monitoring to anesthesia monitors: an observational cohort study

Background Operating rooms (OR) are noisy places, and proper control of intraoperative noise is advised by health care organizations to avoid its hazardous effects. Finding a smartphone application to measure and control intraoperative annoying sound is necessary. Objective To compare noise levels in Kasr Al Ainy Hospitals’ ORs with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations and to investigate their effects on patients. Methods and material Forty patients who underwent surgeries under regional anesthesia at six different theaters enrolled in this observational cohort study. Sound was recorded by TM-102 Sound Level Meter and NoiseCapture app simultaneously. They used to capture the maximum (Max) and minimum (Min) values of A-weighting and average (mean) values in decibel (dB). The 1ry outcome was a comparison of the equivalent sound pressure levels (Leq (A)) measured by TM-102 Sound Level Meter with WHO recommendation (i.e., 40 dB). Results Mean noise levels in different theaters were far away from the WHO recommendations. The mean (Leq (A)) level measured by TM-102 Sound Level Meter was 73.01 (± 5.74) compared to 72.15 (± 6.57) measured by NoiseCapture. These levels exceeded the WHO recommendation by around 1.8 times. Both tools showed a good correlation with no statistically significant differences in all readings. Four distressed patients (66.7%) reported the obstetric theater as the highest noisy OR (78 dB). Conclusions Intraoperative noise levels at Kasr Al Ainy Hospital reached critical values that exceeded the international recommendations. For intraoperative noise monitoring, NoiseCapture smartphone application appeared like a straightforward hand-held software appropriate for this purpose.