Spine surgeons take care of your necks!

Indian spine surgeons J Naresh-Babu, Viswanadha Arun-Kumar, and DGS Ragu of the Mallika Spine Centre, Andhra Pradesh, performed an observational study to analyze the surgeon’s neck postures while performing lumbar spinal surgeries. Lumbar spinal surgeries are on the rising trend. With an increase in the number of procedures, the average time spent by a spine surgeon performing surgical procedures is also increasing. The effect of operating posture on the surgeon’s neck is unknown. From the studies conducted on the usage of smartphones, abnormal neck postures, especially the forward head posture (FHP), were found to affect the cervical spine of individuals adversely. (Picture courtesy of Mizuho OSI) Sixty video recordings (25 open transforaminal lumbar interbody fusions [TLIFs] and 35 lumbar decompression [LD] procedures – 15 with a headlight and 20 with an operating microscope) of surgeries performed by three spine surgeons of different heights were analyzed. Running videos of the surgeries were recorded concentrating on the surgeons with reflective markers taped to their surface landmarks corresponding to C7 spinous process, tragus of the ear, and outer…

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