Researchers discovered that the saying "The early bird gets the worm" can be applied even in the case of surgical interventions. They have showed that if one undergoes surgical intervention in the morning, he is less likely to develop post-procedure side effects than patients that receive surgery later in a day.

The medical team from the Duke University Medical Center that proved this rather awkward thing investigated about 90,000 data from surgeries that have taken place at the hospital during the 200-2004 period. The findings showed that patients who received surgery procedures as early as 9 a.m., for instance, were 4 times less likely to need post-operative painkillers than patients who entered the surgery room after 4 p.m.

"This is one of the first studies to show that there is a difference in patient outcomes depending on the start time of surgery. We found that adverse events (or problems) were most common for operations starting between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Furthermore, the predicted probability of an adverse event in the "other" category increased from a low of 1% at 9 a.m. to a high of 4.2% at 4 p.m," explained researcher Melanie Wright, Human Factors Specialist at the Duke University.

However, post-operative pains were not severe and could be easily annihilated by pain medications. "On the positive side we didn't find anything that showed people were being hurt badly by this, they're manageable things. But it points to something we can look at more closely: Can we improve quality care?" Dr. Wright added.

The difference between morning and afternoon surgical intervention may be mainly caused by the fatigue and weariness of the health care workers. "If you're tired and stressed and overworked, no matter what field you're in, things can go wrong. There's an assembly line kind of mentality that really just comes down to production pressure, and it's prevalent everywhere in health care, I think," stated Sandra Tunajek, director of the Council for Public Interest in Anesthesia. But the anesthesia operations that lead to more post-surgical pains could also be caused by the tiredness in patients.

Other possible explanation could be linked to the fact that human body responds in a dissimilar manner to drugs, depending on the time of the day. "It is possible that people react to drugs differently at different times of the day. People are now looking at the effect on drugs of circadian rhythms, how long since the last cup of coffee, how many visitors, was it a quiet time or busy time," pointed out Dr. David Birnbach, director of the University of Miami's Center for Patient Safety. This new medical concept is called "chronobiology."