Clowns in the OR?

OK, this has to be the weird post of the week: Clowns in the OR, from Aggravated DocSurg:

According to this report, a new Italian study has found that the presence of a clown in the operating room may help to ease the anxiety of young patients and their parents. Unfortunately, the report does not reference the study directly, authored by Laura Vagnoli of Anna Meyer Children's Hospital in Florence, so we will have to await its formal publication to get any meaningful information. The study included 40 children, with ages ranging from 4 months to 4 years, who were taken to the OR with at least one parent, where a clown was present.





OK, OK, just stop right there! It's just not right to call my anesthesia colleagues clowns!

And he goes on from there. Clowns would have made me run screaming, but then again, even Ronald McDonald gives me the willies. I must be clown-phobic.