The influence of music on technical skill in robotic surgery among general surgery residents: a simulation-based experimental study

Music is commonly played in operating rooms, but its effect on the acquisition of robotic surgical skills is unclear, particularly when the music is chosen by the trainee. This study evaluated whether a personalized musical intervention influences the technical performance of general surgery residents on a robotic surgery simulator. Thirty-two residents with no previous robotic experience performed three exercises (Pick and Place, Ring and Rail 1 and Energy Dissection 1) on the RobotiX Mentor simulator. Each participant completed a first run without music and a second run with self-selected preferred music, followed by a third run under a randomly allocated condition: no music, preferred music or random music. Objective simulator metrics were summarized descriptively, and the three conditions were compared in the randomly allocated run using the Kruskal–Wallis test with Bonferroni correction for 26 comparisons. No comparison reached statistical significance after correction. The lowest unadjusted p values were observed for instrument collisions in Pick and Place (p = 0.045) and inappropriately applied energy in Energy Dissection 1 (p = 0.029; corrected p = 0.753). In an exploratory analysis, execution time decreased from run 1 to run 2 in all exercises (p ≤ 0.003), consistent with learning. Participants selected 31 different songs by 25 artists. Under the conditions evaluated, personalized music was not associated with a significant improvement in technical performance during early robotic simulator training. The protocol proved feasible and reproduces the individualized way in which music is used in clinical practice; larger, fully randomized studies are warranted.