Assessing Posture in Surgery: Video Sampling of Microsurgery

Prolonged static work postures and posture constraints imposed by surgical equipment may increase the risk of musculoskeletal pain and discomfort in surgeons. Four surgeons were video recorded performing live microsurgery and a work sampling methodology was used to quantify their upper body postures, investigating the proportion of static and dynamic postures, and compare surgeon postures to the postures found in laboratory studies. Surgeons were found assuming flexed postures in their neck, shoulder, elbow, and back. Most of the procedure consists of static postures where movement greater than 10 degrees per second was not frequently detected in our sampling. Of the four surgeons, one surgeon was found on average to have lower neck flexion than the other three. Further investigation showed the surgeon looking through the microscope at a distance to assume a more upright neutral posture. Identifying surgeon work postures is a key step to understanding how to reduce musculoskeletal pain and discomfort.