Introducing Exoskeletons into the Operating Room: A pilot study with vascular surgeons

Abstract

The main goal of this pilot study was to create, implement and evaluate a strategy for introducing exoskeletons in the operating room (OR) at a quaternary care academic hospital. The strategy consisted of operating-room-specific considerations, introducing exoskeletons to surgeons, and a post-surgery survey. Three male attending vascular surgeons participated in eleven data collections to date. Low interference with surgeon’s ability to perform surgery was found for all surgical procedures, except for two open abdominal aortic procedures. The surgeons reported little to no limit on range of motion, except for one open abdominal aortic procedure. Lower than expected perceived improvement of ability to perform surgery and increase of physical comfort was self-reported. The responses indicate that the surgeons are willing to keep trying an exoskeleton intervention. In conclusion, a feasible process was created to introduce passive exoskeleton as an ergonomic intervention to vascular surgeons in their ORs.

The Effects of Variable Tension Forces on Exoskeletons’ Effectiveness

“…Exoskeletons, a "wearable device that augments, enables, assists, and/or enhances physical activity through mechanical interaction with the body" (ASTM, 2021), have been implemented in a variety of industries. One notable industry is healthcare with nurses (Hwang et al, 2021;Miura et al, 2021), ultrasound workers (Tetteh, Wang, et al, 2022), and in surgical settings (Cha et al, 2019(Cha et al, , 2020Liu et al, 2018;Perry et al, 2007;Santoso et al, 2022;Tetteh, 2021;Tetteh, Hallbeck, et al, 2022;Tetteh, Wang, et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2021). Surgeons are a class of workers of particular interest due to their increased likelihood of developing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) from holding risky postures for extended durations during surgeries (Catanzarite et al, 2018;Stucky et al, 2018).…”

Impact of preferred surgical modality on surgeon wellness: a survey of workload, physical pain/discomfort, and neuromusculoskeletal disorders

“…Due to the increasing prevalence of work-related injuries reported by surgeons, there is a critical need for better ergonomic understanding and interventions in the operating room (OR). While previous studies have explored potential ergonomic interventions such as physical exercise outside the OR [ 10 ], intraoperative stretching microbreaks [ 11 – 14 ] and more recently passive exoskeletons [ 15 – 17 ], there still remain many factors contributing to this problem. One unanswered question is: does surgeon preference for a surgical modality (e.g., open, laparoscopic, endoscopic, robot-assisted) affect the incidence of NMSDs, pain, and physical discomfort?…”