Discussion
Whilst the Bluetooth speaker improved volume of speech, it was deemed almost unintelligible by the theatre team due to the delay between speaking and the speaker emitting sound. The guitar amp system however, was deemed to be very effective by the whole theatre team. All members involved felt that it improved both the volume and the clarity of the surgeon’s speech.
Based on our results, a throat mic guitar amp system (fig.2 & 3) improves communication between members of a theatre team and may in turn have an impact on patient safety.
Our system involved removing the 3.5mm headphone style plug from the throat mic and replacing it with a 6.35mm plug compatible with the guitar amplifier which requires a degree of technical expertise, however simple adapters are available to overcome this issue.