Answer

Sure.

What do they talk about?

Here's a sample conversation between trained surgeons who are equals.

****

Max: Mindy got it pretty bad at the grand rounds eh?

Gin: Yeah it was a tough case. Don't think I could have done any better at that age. How was your weekend?

Max: The usual. Son's talking his exams next week. I swear the grumpiest one at home is the missus.

Gin: He's, what, 12 this year?

Max: Yeah, he's …

Gin: hold on. You think that could be the ureter?

Max: Possibly. Maybe go around here.

Gin: yeah … probably …

<Relative silence while they work together to free the ureter from the cancer>

Gin: ok, so what were we talking about again?

****

So, basically casual conversation during routine bits of the surgery, and professional communication when it comes to the key parts of the surgery or when coordination is required. The professional communication in most cases is via body language and a shared knowledge of what needs to be done. Most of surgery is repetitive and surgeons should have done so many so often large parts of the procedure is part of muscle memory.

It's a bit like driving a car. Most of the time, your subconscious mind is doing the routine work. But when you need to merge into the highway, or overtake a car, or park the car, you stop the banter for a while. All the time the senses are alert for potential problems. Is that pedestrian going to dash across the road? Is that truck really slowing down?

In my view you really want your surgeon to be bored during your surgery (while remaining alert) because that means your condition is routine and simple.

What about conversation between surgeons of different seniority? This is a possible conversation between a senior surgeon and a very junior surgeon in a training hospital.

****

Max: the most important part of the surgery is the preparation. If you give me six hours to chop down a tree I'd spend four hours sharpening the axe. It's the same with surgery. If you fail to prepare, you prepare to … what do you think that is

Min: … what? This one?

Max: No this tubular structure. Over here.

Min: oh, that one.

Max: that's the ureter.

Min: yes of course!

Max: Don't tug so hard. Gentle. Gentle. You're a surgeon, not a butcher. Go around it. Yes. Good. You see here, that's the bifurcation of the common iliac artery at the level of the sacral promontory, which is where…

****

Apologies for the clichéd surgical banter. You get the point. Basically this is a teacher to a student relationship. The primary surgeon needs to assess what his trainee is capable of and so what tasks they can be supervised.

If the patient is awake during surgeries under local anaesthetic, in addition to giving instructions or forewarning them of any changes (such as injecting them again with a needle), many of us make casual conversation because we think this takes the patient's mind off what is sure to be a stressful situation. When we need to concentrate we keep quiet.

So all in all, pretty human interaction really.