Why can't surgeons sit down?

[Chinnychin]

Now ever since my surgery rotation which I ended up hating for many reasons due to a crappy experience etc-but even had that been good, what I despised about surgery was having to stand there all day during a long surgery. I never understood this and until I saw a couple attendings use these chairs while operating I did not think it was done. But now that I know some attendings obviously do sit during a surgery (and yes they are performing the surgery-why the hell can't people sit-you barely move around while operating-nothing you could not do with your upper body-and if you did need leverage or something you could stand up for a couple minutes.

Just seems ridiculous. Maybe a dumb reason to not like surgery but I honestly think tons of more people would go into the field if you did not have to stand there all day.

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[Samoa]

There are a number of neurosurgery programs where sitting to operate is common. It mostly seems to depend on the accessibility of the surgical field. Heads, arms, legs are all still accessible from a sitting position. Neck, spine abdomen, pelvis all require you to lean a bit over the surgical field. Also, there'a potentially wide distance between the bottom of the table and the top of the surgical field, greater than the distance from hip to mid-chest of most surgeons, making it more tiring to hold your arms up for the whole surgery than to stand.

At some programs it's customary to stand even if the surgery is amenable to sitting. But often it's a matter of ergonomics.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I agree with Samoa - for many procedures it is not conducive to sit, as a matter of fact for abdominal operations I have to stand on steps. That's not because the table is too high or the attending was tall, but rather the hole is so deep.

But it is feasible to sit (and many do) for procedures on the extremities and the head. BTW, you do get used to standing, even if it is at the expense of having more spider veins!