The ergonomic impact of patient body mass index on surgeon posture during simulated laparoscopy

Ryan Sers; Steph Forrester; Massimiliano Zecca; Stephen Ward; Esther Moss

doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2021.103501

The ergonomic impact of patient body mass index on surgeon posture during simulated laparoscopy

Appl Ergon. 2021 Nov:97:103501. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2021.103501. Epub 2021 Jun 22.

Authors

Ryan Sers¹, Steph Forrester¹, Massimiliano Zecca¹, Stephen Ward¹, Esther Moss²

Affiliations

¹ Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University, UK.
² Leicester Cancer Research Centre, University of Leicester, UK. Electronic address: em321@le.ac.uk.

PMID: 34167015
DOI: 10.1016/j.apergo.2021.103501

Abstract

Laparoscopy is a cornerstone of modern surgical care, with clear advantages for the patients. However, it has also been associated with inducing upper body musculoskeletal disorders amongst surgeons due to their propensity to assume non-neutral postures. Further, there is a perception that patients with high body mass indexes (BMI) exacerbate these factors. Therefore, surgeon upper body postures were objectively quantified using inertial measurement units and the LUBA ergonomic framework was used to assess posture during laparoscopic training on patient models that simulated BMIs of 20, 30, 40 and 50 kg/m². In all surgeons the posture of the upper body significantly worsened during simulated laparoscopic surgery on the BMI 50 kg/m² model as compared to the baseline BMI model of 20 kg/m². These findings suggest that performing laparoscopic surgery on patients with high BMIs increases the prevalence of non-neutral posture and may further increase the risk of musculoskeletal disorders in surgeons.

Keywords: Ergonomics; Inertial measurement units; Laparoscopic surgery; Posture.

MeSH terms

Body Mass Index
Ergonomics
Humans
Laparoscopy*
Posture
Surgeons*