NCT06525701

Surgeon Core-strengthening Program as a Modifier for Exertion Associated With Vaginal Surgery

Surgeon Core-strengthening Program as a Modifier for Exertion Associated With Vaginal Surgery: the SCORE Randomized Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 18 (actual)
• Sponsor: Loyola University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Work-related musculoskeletal pain and injury is a growing concern in surgery. Vaginal surgery has unique ergonomic risks, but no studies have addressed the potential for an exercise regimen to reduce physical strain by vaginal surgeons

Detailed description

Surgical ergonomics is a burgeoning field, spurred by the recognition of the high prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal pain and injury in practicing surgeons including obstetrician/gynecologists. Surgery is often a demanding physical task, and the muscles and joints that are stressed vary by the surgical approach. Vaginal surgery has unique ergonomic challenges, particularly for assistants who may need to laterally bend their torsos to visualize the surgical field while still holding retractors. This is often a compromising physical position for the back, the shoulders, and sometimes the neck which increases the risk of acute or chronic musculoskeletal injury. The risk of injury can be thought of as a discrepancy between the demands of the task and the individual's physical capabilities. Surgeons' injury risk may be decreased if their physical capabilities can be improved through exercise. Most existing publications on surgical ergonomics have focused on raising awareness and on environmental changes such as optimizing surgeon posture during the case or introducing micro-breaks and stretching. Few publications have assessed a structured exercise program with the goal of decreasing surgeon pain or fatigue during and after surgery. To our knowledge, no studies have addressed this in vaginal surgery.

Conditions

• Musculoskeletal Pain
• Musculoskeletal Injury

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Execise Group	SCORE workout: eight exercises done sequentially: bicycles, balancing dog, windshield wipers, three-point plank, kayaker, super push-ups, bridge, and side plank. These workouts are modified from the core regimen recommended by Steve House and Scott Johnston in their book Training for the New Alpinism: A Manual for the Climber as Athlete (House 2014). Each exercise is done until fatigue: when the individual is no longer able to complete the exercise with good form. The participant then rests for approximately thirty to sixty seconds before beginning the next exercise. Passive stretching can be performed during the rest periods. The workout is complete at twenty minutes. Those individuals who complete all eight exercises in less than twenty minutes begin again with the first exercise (bicycles) and continue until reaching twenty minutes. The workout is thus adaptive-seamlessly increasing in repetitions as an individual's strength and endurance increase.
OTHER	Control Group	No additional exercises or tasks are requested of control participants. Control group participants will perform or not perform exercise as they otherwise would outside of the study.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-08-12
• Primary completion: 2025-07-01
• Completion: 2025-07-01
• First posted: 2024-07-29
• Last updated: 2025-09-09

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States