Did Hell Just Freeze Over?

Oh dear oh dear. How did I miss this one? Thanks to Danny Ben-Eli for sending me this absolute gem from the BMJ this month. 

The orthopods have finally had enough. After generations of being made fun of for being at the less intelligent end of the medical spectrum (mainly by their anaesthetic colleagues), Subramanian et al from the UK have conducted a multicentre prospective comparative study, pitting male orthopaedic surgeons against male anaesthetists in a tests of grip strength, and intelligence. The results were somewhat unexpected...

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To compare the intelligence and grip strength of orthopaedic surgeons and anaesthetists.

DESIGN:

Multicentre prospective comparative study.

SETTING:

Three UK district general hospitals in 2011.

PARTICIPANTS:

36 male orthopaedic surgeons and 40 male anaesthetists at consultant or specialist registrar grade.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

Intelligence test score and dominant hand grip strength.

RESULTS:

Orthopaedic surgeons had a statistically significantly greater mean grip strength (47.25 (SD 6.95) kg) than anaesthetists (43.83 (7.57) kg). The mean intelligence test score of orthopaedic surgeons was also statistically significantly greater at 105.19 (10.85) compared with 98.38 (14.45) for anaesthetists.

CONCLUSIONS:

Male orthopaedic surgeons have greater intelligence and grip strength than their male anaesthetic colleagues, who should find new ways to make fun of their orthopaedic friends.

BMJ. 2011 Dec 15;343:d7506. doi: 10.1136/bmj.d7506.

Full Article

Update on Tuesday, December 20, 2011 at 11:18PM by Amit Maini

Just spotted this brilliant comment in the rapid responses section...

"Of course, the aetiology of superior dominant hand grip strength among orthopaedic surgeons remains the subject of conjecture ..."

Anne E Thezya,