OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS FACING DOCTORS ESPECIALLY IN THE FIELD OF ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY

Introduction: Minimal invasive surgeries have been performed on the patients for the well-known advantages of it and it has been used in several fields of surgery such as general surgery, gynecology & obstetrics, urology and cardio thoracic etc. Concentration of surgeon and his quality of skill required is very high especially when it comes to fine work required in MIS. Objectives: To assess the awareness of ergonomic guidelines in surgeons of SZH, to study the level of self-reported adherence to ergonomics guidelines in minimally invasive surgeries by surgeons and residents working in surgical and allied disciplines at Shaikh Zayed Hospital. Methodology: Study Design: It is a cross-sectional study. Procedure: The study was conducted with the help of a questionnaire. The copies of the questionnaire were handed out from August 20, 2014 to August 22, 2014 to 48 available doctors of the above mentioned departments at the time of distribution of the questionnaires and were collected by August 23, 2014. A total of 43 doctors responded by returning answered questionnaires. With a total of 94 doctors working in these departments according to the list provided by the administration, the response rate was 46%. Duration of practice as a surgeon was considered along with total working hours per day, per week and the number of MIS performed per week and per month. Operating room factors considered were height of monitor, size of monitor and height of the table used. Factors of physical discomfort considered were neck pain, shoulder pain, arm pain, knee pain and pain in feet and it was also asked if it needed medication or not. They were also asked if they were comfortable with their eye-hand-target axis and if they were aware about ergonomic guidelines. Data Analysis: Data collected, was entered into SPSS version 21. Conclusion: A higher than expected number of surgeons is unaware of ergonomic guidelines (51%). Even then, many are comfortable with table height and monitor height. A high percentage (46.5%) of surgeons suffers from neck pain during or after surgeries. Shoulder pain, knee pain, arm pain and feet pain are less common. Low table height is associated with physical discomfort expressed as knee pain, shoulder pain and arm pain. Greater than 26 inch monitors are more comfortable than 14 inch monitors. Keywords: Occupational Hazards, Doctors, Field of Orthopedic Surgery