Login to Access Video or Poster Abstract: MP76-11
Sources of Funding: None

Introduction

Workplace injury has been long recognized; recent attention has turned to the concern that modern surgical volumes and especially laparoscopic techniques put practitioners at risk of these injuries. We surveyed urologists to seek correlations between the type, volume and duration of surgical work performed, surgeon characteristics, and the prevalence of musculoskeletal complaint and injury across career._x000D_

Methods

An anonymous web-based multi-national survey of urologists was conducted, with pain as the primary outcome. Student t-test, Fisher exact and Chi-Square tests were used for analysis._x000D_

Results

701 complete responses were received from this multi-national survey (Figure 1). Gender, pain distribution, and private or academic practice did not correlate with pain, while exercise and lower weight and BMI were protective (Table 1). Dose-response of surgical type was assessed with high and low volume density quartiles and frequency of each pain severity (Figure 2). _x000D_

Conclusions

To our knowledge, no study has assessed hard endpoints of occupational spinal injury, nor sought surgeon-protective factors. In this, the largest surgical ergonomic study to date: surgical type, duration, volume, setting, and physician gender were unrelated to surgeon pain throughout career. Female practitioners seek invasive therapy less than male counterparts. Exercise appears protective against these complaints in a dose-related fashion; increasing weight and BMI are associated with pain. North Americans report less pain than global counterparts. Practitioners of direct optical cystoscopy report no more neck trouble than others. Although 47% of urologists with spinal pain blame their career, we are unable to identify any dose-response relationship that supports that assumption._x000D_

Funding

None