Work Breaks During Simulated Minimally Invasive Surgery

University Hospital Tuebingen

Status: Completed

Conditions: Work-break Schedules

Treatments: Behavioral: Work break schedule

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03715816

UKT-2018AS0-1835

Details and patient eligibility

About

Minimally invasive surgeons have a prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal complaints of up to 86% due to the exposure to static loading, awkward postures, work pressure, and patient's wellbeing. Researchers have developed postural interventions to counteract the prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints and disorders, such as robot-assisted surgeries, arm-support systems, and rotatable handle pieces. An alternative intervention is to implement work breaks during the surgeries, which has shown to give promising results including that surgery duration does not prolong.

The aim of the current study is to simulate 90-min laparoscopic surgery activities in the laboratory and compare two intervention situations with the control situation. The control situation is without work breaks. The two intervention situations include 2.5-min breaks provided two times, i.e. after every 30-min work period, which are passive (rest) or active (targeted mobilization exercises). The assessment is based on changes in muscular activity on the back and upper extremities, back and upper extremity postures, feelings of discomfort, and work performance.

Enrollment: 21 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• (Student) surgeons, who are familiar with laparoscopic procedures and / or simulated laparoscopic procedures;
• Be able to perform the Peg-Transfer task (Simulab, Seattle, WA, USA) within 3 minutes;
• The participant will give her/his voluntary informed consent after receiving oral and written information of the content and goal of the study.

Exclusion criteria

• (Student) surgeons who are not familiar with laparoscopic procedures and / or simulated laparoscopic procedures;
• Not able to perform the Peg-Transfer task within 3 minutes;
• People under the influence of intoxicants, analgesics, or muscle relaxants;
• Alcohol abuse;
• People with cardiovascular diseases;
• People with a heart pacemaker;
• People with a disability who, due to their restriction at a workplace of this kind, will not be able to participate;
• People with Diabetes Mellitus;
• People with severe muscle contractions of the lower extremities, back or arms;
• People with acute ailments or pain, which make(s) them unable to participate;
• People who are unable to complete the examination program due to language or cognitive obstacles;
• Depending on the degree of severity, people with diseases of the veins and joints of the lower extremities, spine, muscle disorders, symptomatic neurological-psychiatric diseases, acute pain syndromes, maladies or other current diseases.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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21 participants in 3 patient groups

No breaks

No Intervention group

Description:

Subjects will simulate a 90-min laparoscopic activities in the laboratory.

Passive breaks

Experimental group

Description:

Subjects will simulate a 90-min laparoscopic activities in the laboratory, and after 30 and 60 min of work, they will be provided a 2.5-min break during which they can have a rest.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Work break schedule

Active breaks

Experimental group

Description:

Subjects will simulate a 90-min laparoscopic activities in the laboratory, and after 30 and 60 min of work, they will be provided a 2.5-min break during which they will be performing some mobilisation exercises for the back, shoulder, and neck.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Work break schedule