Abstract

Background: Surgeons are more exposed to long-standing and hard work which results in pain development, especially the musculoskeletal (MS) pain that interferes with the performance of their job. Accordingly, this study aims to estimate the prevalence of MS pain and to find out the pattern of MS pain among surgeons. Moreover, it aims to identify the determinants of MS pain among surgeons and define the effects of MS pain on surgeons' daily life and career.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out in the governmental hospitals in Abha and Khamis Mushet city, Saudi Arabia. A minimum sample of 150 surgeons was required to estimate the expected prevalence of MS pain among surgeon staff. The data were collected using the visual analog scale and structured interview questionnaire and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
Results: The data were collected from 225 surgeons. About 48% reported that they experienced pain caused due to the long time taken in wearing a lead apron. Nearly 50% reported back pain as the most repeated pain occurred due to the operations involving the long duration of neck flexion, bending and twisting and lifting transport, and positioning the patients as the main causes. The most common reported symptoms included pain among 32.9% and fatigue among 20% of the subjects. Among all the tested determinants, only profession, years of work, and time of wearing lead apron were correlated with the degree of pain.
Conclusion: The study concluded that MS pain was mainly caused by the long duration of neck flexion, and it commonly occurs in the back with pain and fatigue as main symptoms. The study defined the profession, years of work, and time of wearing a lead apron as the determinants of the degree of pain.

Key words: Musculoskeletal pain, Saudi Arabia, determinants, surgeons