To the Editor: I found the recent letter to the Editor from Riley1 fascinating, and the comment from Teo2 depressing in the extreme. Of the many factors that drove me from anaesthetic practice and into the houseboat business 4 years ago, the selfish attitude of many surgeons towards our communal working environment was high on the list.

If all parties in an operating theatre wish to be “entertained” with music while operating on their fellow man, then I suppose it might be permissible (but one wonders what many patients would say if they knew).

However, it seems quite beyond the autocratic mindset of many surgeons to understand that auditory input is important to anaesthetists for monitoring the patient and for communication between the anaesthetist, surgeon and nursing staff. To impose music as background noise is unacceptable to many of us, especially as auditory discrimination decreases with age.

Riley’s description of video as well as audio to distract from the primary function of surgery beggars belief. I note that Teo agrees with me here.

When are surgeons going to realise that surgery is only one part of the professional work that goes on in an operating theatre?