Why Surgeons Dress in Green

White reigned in operating rooms until, around 1914, a surgeon replaced it with deep green. The reason is optical: staring long at the red of blood saturates perception of red and makes green phantom spots appear on any light background. Green, and blue-green, is the complementary color of red; in surgery, the eye continuously fixes on the red of tissues and photoreceptors sensitive to red become fatigued.

On a white field, these phantom spots blur vision and disturb gesture. Around 1914, American surgeon Harry Sherman has spinach-green textiles adopted: by aligning the background with the color of afterimages, one makes them invisible and stabilizes perception of red nuances—crucial for distinguishing arteries, muscles, and tissues.

Green also reduces glare under surgical lights and contrasts less brutally than white. Long presented as simple tradition, this choice actually corrects a precise physiological limit of human vision. Understanding the green operating room means seeing surgery as a problem of perception as much as technique.