Surgeons may want to update their theatre playlist with a study showing trainees perform faster and more accurately with AC/DC blasting from the speakers. 

Rock anthems Highway to Hell and TNT helped medical students increase their speed, but maintain accuracy, when practising precision cutting, the German authors say.

Soft rock in the form of the Beatles’ Hey Jude and Let It Be also improved accuracy and speed for other surgical techniques, but only when played at medium volume, according to the findings in Langenbeck’s Archives of Surgery. 

“Our results show that both soft rock and hard rock can enhance surgical performance,” the researchers wrote.