This article reviews the background to overlapping surgery, in which a single senior surgeon operates across two parallel operating theatres; anaesthesia is induced and surgery commenced by junior surgeons in the second operating theatre while the lead surgeon completes the operation in the first. We assess whether there is any theoretical basis to expect increased productivity in terms of number of operations completed. A review of observational studies found that while there is a perception of increased surgical output for one surgeon, there is no evidence of increased productivity compared with two surgeons working in parallel. There is potential for overlapping surgery to have some positive impact in situations where turnover times between cases are long, operations are short (<2 h) and where ‘critical portions’ of surgery constitute about half of the total operation time. However, any advantages must be balanced against safety, ethical and training concerns.

中文翻译：

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重叠手术安排对手术室生产力的影响：叙述性回顾

本文回顾了重叠手术的背景，其中一名高级外科医生在两个平行的手术室进行手术；初级外科医生在第二个手术室诱导麻醉并开始手术，而首席外科医生在第一个手术室完成手术。我们评估是否有任何理论基础可以预期在完成的操作数量方面提高生产率。对观察性研究的回顾发现，虽然人们认为一名外科医生的手术量有所增加，但与两名外科医生并行工作相比，没有证据表明其生产率有所提高。在病例周转时间长、手术时间短的情况下，重叠手术有可能产生一些积极影响（< 2 h) 并且手术的“关键部分”约占总手术时间的一半。然而，任何优势都必须与安全、道德和培训问题相平衡。