617 Does Wearing Enhanced Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) In Theatre Increase Surgeon Workload and Patient Morbidity?

Delivery of surgical services during the Covid-19 pandemic has required the use of enhanced PPE in the operating theatre. We sought to evaluate the impact of this change on surgeon workload and intraoperative patient outcomes. Method Surgeons performing as primary operator completed an online procedure-specific questionnaire on workload ratings for each operative case, using an extension of the validated Surgeon Task Load Index (SURG-TLX) tool (reported on a 20-point scale), together with operative details. Local approval was obtained at individual sites. Data was analysed in Stata SE v16. Results 118 responses (17 surgeons, 7 specialties) were collected from June to September 2020. 77.1% used enhanced PPE. There was no association between enhanced PPE use and overall workload (p = 0.151) as measured with SURG-TLX, although surgeons wearing enhanced PPE commonly reported finding individual procedures harder than expected (37% vs 0%, p < 0.001). Communication was rated worse when using enhanced PPE use (MD -4.38, 95%CI -6.74 to 02.03; p < 0.001). There was no association between enhanced PPE use and intraoperative complications (p = 0.745). Conclusions The use of enhanced PPE is not associated with complications or increased surgeon workload assessed by SURG-TLX. It is, however, associated with difficulty in communicating, and subjectively experiencing more procedural challenge than anticipated.