Muhammad Ahmad, Zohaib Sadiq, Rana Muhammad Umair Atif, Muhammad Abu Bakar, Ahmad Noeman.
Frequency of neck pain in cardiac surgeons.
J Cardiovascular Dis Jan ;17(1):9-13.

BACKGROUND: Developing neck pain as a consequence of professional work is quite common and is reported to present in about 50% of population. 1 It may be due to lack of exercise, metabolic disorders and may be related to bad posture while doing work. Cardiac surgeons may develop musculoskeletal pains due to bad posture while performing long duration surgeries. AIMS & OBJECTIVE: To see the frequency of neck pain in cardiac surgeons. MATERIAL & METHODS: This observational, cross sectional case series was carried out in cardiac surgery department of Punjab institute of cardiology, Lahore over a duration of one year in year 2018. A total of 21 working cardiac surgeons were included after their consent. All surgeons included in study regardless of age and gender. Surgeons with previous history of musculoskeletal disorders, rheumatic or connective tissue disorders, on regular analgesics for some disease or previous surgery of neck and diseases like diabetes, hypertension etc. were excluded from the study. All baseline information including age, gender, duration of job, working hours and number of surgeries performed per week were recorded. The posture of neck was recorded while doing surgery. Neck disability index/score (NDI) was used to assess the severity of neck pain and it was divided into mild, moderate and severe according to score. SPSS version 21 was used for analysis of data. RESULTS: The study showed that 66.7% of the surgeons perform their surgeries in standing posture and rest performed in mixed postures. 19 out 21(90.4%) had complaints about neck pain. Fatigability was reported in 52.4% and they also complained of neck muscle stretch. Use of NSAIDs was reported in 19.9% while muscle relaxant intake and need for physiotherapy was reported in 9.5% each. According to NDI score 9 had mild disability, 8 had moderate while severe disability was present in only 2 patients. There was no significant relationship between study variables and NDI score. CONCLUSION: The musculoskeletal problems especially neck related pain and fatigability is quite common in cardiac surgeons. NDI score can be used to grade the severity of neck pain.

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