What Doctors Don't Tell You
* Sleep deprived surgeons make around 20 per cent more errors and are 14 per cent slower than colleagues who have had rest, a recent study has found. The findings were made in a ‘virtual reality’ test it would never be ethical, for a proper study, to deliberately assign tired surgeons to patients, says Eric Altschuler from the University of California (Lancet, 1999; 353: 501).
* Car air bags that suddenly inflate after a low speed crash have injured the occupants and new reports suggest they can also make you deaf. Doctors have reported several cases where drivers have suffered either hearing loss or tinnitus casued by the high noise of the inflating bag (BMJ, 1999; 318: 499-500).
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD
