Surgeons Can Avoid Lasting Pain Through Exercise Literacy

NCT05175443 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 72626
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 41
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The physical demands of surgery are in many ways similar to those of high-performance athletes. No professional athlete would consider performing without careful attention to strengthening and physical preparedness, yet surgeons routinely place rigorous demands on their bodies without any training plan specific to their work demands. A series of exercises were developed to help stretch and strengthen the key core muscles to support surgeons during operating to prevent neck pain. This study hypothesizes that Neck pain discomfort will decrease following an 8-week intervention program compared to baseline reported scores.

Conditions

Neck Pain; Shoulder Pain

Keywords

Surgeon

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in Neck Disability Index

  The Neck Disability Index is 10 items, with each item consisting of likert type scale ranging from 0-4 with a lower score indicating less disability. The 10 items are summed for a total of potential 50 points which is then normalized to 100% scale by multiplying by 2.

  Baseline, at end of 8 weeks of intervention

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Worse Neck Pain

  Baseline, at end of 8 weeks of intervention

Study Arms (1)

Exercise Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

1. Wall Angels:Stretching tight anterior shoulder musculature Participants will assume this position and slide their arms up and down the wall for 2 minutes. 2. Cervical Spine Mobility: will be accomplished by having the participant stabilize their shoulders and side bend their head in various positions to stretch each side of their next for 2 minutes with 10-15 second holds in each position. 3. Posterior shoulder strengthening: will be performed with shoulder externally rotating and squeezing the scapular with 5 second holds for 2 minutes. 4. Thoracic Spinal mobility: to improve thoracic extension participants will use a strap or tennis ball and perform thoracic extension with 10 second holds for 2 minutes.

Other: Exercise

Interventions

Exercise OTHER

Participants will be trained, by a physical therapist, to perform a set of four daily exercises requiring 1 sets of 2 minutes for each exercise totaling 8 minutes of targeted exercise per day for 8 weeks of the intervention. These exercises will be progressed or modified every 2-4 weeks to assure the participant is receiving maximal benefit for their exercise intervention.

Exercise Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 99 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• must be an actively operating surgeon either faculty, fellow, or resident.
• Must report at least 4 out of 10 with pain at worst over the previous week at intake that is attributed to operating.

You may not qualify if:

• Participants will be excluded if they have prior neck or upper back surgery within the last year.
• If the participant has any other medical condition that would prevent the participant from performing shoulder and neck strengthening and stretching exercises.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Timothy Uhl: lead

Study Sites (1)

University of Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky, 40536, United States

Location

Related Publications (5)

• Alhusuny A, Cook M, Khalil A, Xie Y, Johnston V. Neck/Shoulder Problems and Visual Disturbances Among Surgeons: A Scoping Review. J Surg Res. 2020 Mar;247:413-428. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2019.09.064. Epub 2019 Oct 31.

  PMID: 31679800 BACKGROUND

• Daher A, Carel RS, Tzipi K, Esther H, Dar G. The effectiveness of an aerobic exercise training on patients with neck pain during a short- and long-term follow-up: a prospective double-blind randomized controlled trial. Clin Rehabil. 2020 May;34(5):617-629. doi: 10.1177/0269215520912000. Epub 2020 Mar 17.

  PMID: 32183555 BACKGROUND

• Vernon H, Mior S. The Neck Disability Index: a study of reliability and validity. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 1991 Sep;14(7):409-15.

  PMID: 1834753 BACKGROUND

• Cleland JA, Childs JD, Whitman JM. Psychometric properties of the Neck Disability Index and Numeric Pain Rating Scale in patients with mechanical neck pain. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2008 Jan;89(1):69-74. doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2007.08.126.

  PMID: 18164333 BACKGROUND

• Lee PH, Macfarlane DJ, Lam TH, Stewart SM. Validity of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF): a systematic review. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2011 Oct 21;8:115. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-8-115.

  PMID: 22018588 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Neck Pain; Shoulder Pain

Interventions

Exercise

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Arthralgia; Joint Diseases; Musculoskeletal Diseases

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Motor Activity; Movement; Musculoskeletal Physiological Phenomena; Musculoskeletal and Neural Physiological Phenomena

Study Officials

• Tim L Uhl, PhD

  University of Kentucky

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor

Model Details: Repeated Measure

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: December 14, 2021
• First Posted: January 3, 2022
• Study Start: April 8, 2022
• Primary Completion: December 31, 2022
• Study Completion: December 31, 2022
• Last Updated: January 25, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-01

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)