BBC Music said that "Only Like A Surgeon with its somewhat bizarre sex/hospital metaphors may leave you at a loss for words". Dotmusic said: "'Like A Surgeon' and 'Pucker Up' make a lot of noise, piling on synths, stutters and bleeps, but are neither killer club tunes nor decent pop". Pitchfork wrote that "The-Dream and Tricky Stewart tend to fill their tracks with empty spaces, and Ciara's voice needs hall-of-mirrors production to really register, so slight, minimal tracks like "Ciara to the Stage" and "Like a Surgeon" leave her sounding stranded". The Boston Globe said that "The droning, hook-free "Like a Surgeon" not an A-game effort for songwriting team Tricky and The-Dream". Kelly similes and metaphors, delivered by Ciara with all the necessary arrogance: "I appreciate your recovery time, but you need a physical one more time". AllMusic opined: "On the hypnotically winding "Like a Surgeon", the-Dream provides some of his best, gimmicky, post-R. The New York Times said that "The welcome dash of female sexual aggression on "Like a Surgeon" is an unexpected twist". Slant Magazine said that "The only major disaster is "Like a Surgeon," which is filled with creepy, ill-conceived metaphors for sex". "Like a Surgeon" received generally mixed reviews. The song debuted at 92 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in the Jissue of Billboard magazine. It was due to be released in June 2009, but its release was cancelled, due to the poor sales of Fantasy Ride in the US. Now it is confirmed that "Work" will be released to International markets while "Like a Surgeon" will receive the video and single treatment in North America. It was first confirmed on Ciara's official Twitter page that she would be filming videos for two singles simultaneously although at that time it was not clear which singles would be released.