Posture in practice: heightened awareness of surgical resident ergonomics

Abstract Background Ergonomics is an often-overlooked component of operative education. Early intervention can protect residents from physical stress and long-term musculoskeletal injury. Our aim is to evaluate residents during a simulated suturing exercise and assess the impact of self-evaluation on ergonomics. Methods Following informed consent, surgical residents performed a simulated complex wound closure, blinded to the study’s focus. Following initial closure, residents reviewed their videos with an ergonomic self-assessment guide, repeated the exercise, and completed a post-survey. Representative video clips were analyzed to measure elbow, spine, and neck angles. Standard angles were defined as 90–110° for elbow, < 10° for spine, and < 25° for neck. Results Twenty residents participated across four post-graduate years (PGY): five PGY-4, four PGY-3, four PGY-2, and seven PGY-1. Across all participants, we found significant reduction in spine (12.5° vs 5.1°, p = 0.016) and neck (58.5° vs 46.4°, p = 0.004) angle during the second exercise, but no difference in elbow angle (102.7° vs 101.7°, p = 0.744). The post-survey revealed most residents think about their ergonomics in the operating room at least weekly (75%) and feel physical strain (95%). All residents (100%) reported improved awareness of ergonomics and perceived transferability to the clinical setting. Discussion Our study demonstrated a resident self-assessment of ergonomics led to significant improvement in spinal and neck angles in a simulated exercise with increased awareness of operative ergonomics and perceived transferability to the clinical setting. These findings support integration of ergonomic education early in surgical training to help reduce physical strain and promote operative longevity.