Ergonomics, musculoskeletal disorders, and surgeon gender in spine surgery: a survey of practicing spine surgeons.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to gain a greater understanding of the burden of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in spine surgeons, their impact on practice, and risk factors contributing to MSDs, including surgical instrument design and surgical ergonomics. METHODS: An anonymous REDCap survey was distributed via email to the departments of several academic and private centers across the United States, as well as to the AANS/CNS Women in Neurosurgery Section email list. Chi-square tests and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used to compare responses by gender. Multivariable linear regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of discomfort in instrument utilization. RESULTS: Survey responses were received from 120 spine surgeons (29.1% response rate), of which 73 were included in the analysis. A very high number of respondents had experienced an MSD (70.4%), 38.2% had undergone treatment for at least one MSD, and 13.4% had lost time at work for at least one MSD. Women were more likely than men to have lost time at work due to an MSD (22.6% vs 5.6%, p = 0.04). Women were more likely than men to report difficulty in instrument grip, comfort, and use on a 20-point Likert scale (mean 10.7 vs 15.2 points, p < 0.0001). This effect persisted when adjusting for glove size and days per week spent operating (p = 0.002). Specifically, women were less likely to agree that the handles of surgical instruments were an appropriate grip (p < 0.0001), that they rarely experienced difficulty when using them (p < 0.0001), and that they rarely needed to use two hands with instruments meant to be used with one hand (p = 0.0002). CONCLUSIONS: The MSD burden in spine surgeons is substantial. While there was no evidence of gender differences in MSD rates and severity, female surgeons report significantly more discomfort with the use of surgical instruments. There is a need for more investigation of MSD risk factors in spine surgeons and mitigation strategies. Gender differences in comfort in instrument use should be further explored and addressed by spine surgeons and device manufacturers.

Projected timeline to achieve gender balance within the United States neurosurgical workforce exceeds 150 years: a National Plan and Provider Enumeration System analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Despite incremental progress in the representation and proportion of women in the field of neurosurgery, female neurosurgeons still represent an overwhelming minority of the current US physician workforce. Prior research has predicted the timeline by which the proportion of female neurosurgery residents may reach that of males, but none have used the contemporary data involving the entire US neurosurgical workforce. METHODS: The authors performed a retrospective analysis of the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) registry of all US neurosurgeons to determine changes in the proportions of women in neurosurgery across states, census divisions, and census regions between 2010 and 2020. A univariate linear regression was performed to assess historical growth, and then Holt-Winter forecasting was used to predict in what future year gender parity may be reached in this field. RESULTS: A majority of states, divisions, and regions have increased the proportion of female neurosurgeons from 2010. Given current growth rates, the authors found that female neurosurgeons will not reach the proportion of women in the overall medical workforce until 2177 (95% CI 2169-2186). Furthermore, they found that women in neurosurgery will not match their current proportion of the overall US population until 2267 (95% CI 2256-2279). CONCLUSIONS: Whereas many studies have focused on the overall increase of women in neurosurgery in the last decade, this one is the first to compare this growth in the context of the overall female physician workforce and the female US population. The results suggest a longer timeline for gender parity in neurosurgery than previous studies have suggested and should further catalyze the targeted recruitment of women into the field, an overhaul of current policies in place to support and develop the careers of women in neurosurgery, and increased self-reflection and behavioral change from the entire neurosurgery community.

Sinovenous thrombosis associated with skull fracture in the setting of blunt head trauma.

BACKGROUND: Emerging literature suggests that closed head injuries may be an important etiology of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST). Fractures over the dural sinuses, in particular, may predispose such patients to this secondary complication. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence and characteristics of CVST resulting from skull fractures overlying cerebral venous sinuses at a single tertiary care center. METHODS: A retrospective review of consecutive patients presenting to our institution with skull fractures from blunt head trauma between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2011 who underwent either a computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance (MR) venogram. Patient demographics, associated intracranial injuries, admission Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), presence of CVST, and post-hospital disposition were recorded. RESULTS: Overall, 908 patients with skull fractures presented to the institution. Of those, 63 had fractures over a sinus and a venogram satisfying inclusion criteria. Twenty-two (34.9 %) patients demonstrated a thrombus in at least one sinus. There was no statistical difference in patient demographics, presenting GCS, length of stay (LOS), or outcome between patients with or without a thrombus. Pediatric patients had significantly shorter LOS (11 vs. 4 days, p < 0.01) compared to adults. Adults had a greater incidence of total sinus occlusions while children had more non-occlusive thrombus formations; both were statistically significant (p = 0.035 and p = 0.037, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: This report suggests that over 10 % of skull fractures involve cerebral venous sinuses, thus emphasizing the need to rule out CVST in patients suffering blunt head trauma. We propose including a venogram as part of the initial trauma work-up for these patients. Moreover, our data suggest that pediatric patients may be predisposed to less severe injuries than their adult counterparts.

Observation, reflection, and reinforcement: surgery faculty members' and residents' perceptions of how they learned professionalism.

PURPOSE: To explore perceptions of how professionalism is learned in the current academic environment. Professionalism is a core competency in surgery (as in all of medical practice), and its presence or absence affects all aspects of clinical education and practice, but the ways in which professional values and attitudes are best transmitted to developing generations of surgeons have not been well defined. METHOD: The authors conducted 34 semistructured interviews of individual surgery residents and faculty members at two academic institutions from 2004 to 2006. Interviews consisted of open-ended questions on how the participants learned professionalism and what they perceived as challenges to learning professionalism. Two researchers analyzed the interview transcripts for emergent themes by using a grounded-theory approach. RESULTS: Faculty members' and residents' perceptions of how they learned professionalism reflected four major themes: (1) personal values and upbringing, including premedical education experiences, (2) learning by example from professional role models, (3) the structure of the surgery residency, and (4) formal instruction on professionalism. Of these, role modeling was the dominant theme: Participants identified observation, reflection, and reinforcement as playing key roles in their learning from role models and in distinguishing the sometimes blurred boundary between positive and negative role models. CONCLUSIONS: The theoretical framework generated out of this study proposes a focus on specific activities to improve professional education, including an active approach to role modeling through the intentional and explicit demonstration of professional behavior during the course of everyday work; structured, reflective self-examination; and timely and meaningful evaluation and feedback for reinforcement.

Differences in the perceived impact of sleep deprivation among surgical and non-surgical residents.

OBJECTIVE: Resident work hour restrictions have been mandated in the USA largely out of concern that sleep deprivation compromises doctor performance and patient care. However, individuals' ability to recognise the effects of sleep deprivation has not been studied in medical education. We examined the perceived impact of sleep deprivation among different groups of postgraduate medical trainees. METHODS: A survey addressing work hours, sleepiness and daily functioning was mailed to all residents in the internal medicine, surgery and psychiatry programmes at the University of Toronto who were working at 6 different teaching hospitals. The mailing included the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), measuring acute sleepiness, and a new Sleep Deprivation Impact (SDI) scale, consisting of 12 items designed to measure the perceived impact of sleep deprivation on an individual's own performance. RESULTS: Overall, 62.5% of surgery (95/152) and 59.5% of non-surgery residents (194/326) completed the survey. Surgery residents reported working longer hours per week (83.0 versus 62.5 hours; P < 0.01), and scored higher on the ESS (12.8 versus 9.2; P < 0.01) compared with other residents. Surgery residents scored significantly lower than others on the SDI scale (45.2 versus 51.5, P < 0.01), indicating less perceived impact of sleep deprivation on performance. CONCLUSIONS: These results are consistent with the presence of an underlying culture within surgery in which individuals may be less willing to accept a natural limitation of individual performance. Whether these findings represent an actual resilience to sleep deprivation among surgery residents or a misperception within this group remains to be determined.

Examination stress leads to improvements on fundamental technical skills for surgery.

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to assess the effects of examination-induced stress on the technical performance of junior surgery residents. METHODS: Twelve first-year surgery residents completed 2 surgical tasks (skin excision, tracheotomy) in low- and high-stress condition (in-training examination--Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills [OSATS]). Residents rated their subjective stress levels on a 10-point Likert-like scale. Performances were videotaped and assessed by 3 blinded experts using checklist and global rating scales. RESULTS: Residents reported moderately higher stress levels in the exam condition than in the low-stress conditions (P < .05). Their performance was rated higher in the exam condition on the checklist scales (P < .05) but not on the global rating scales (P = .79). CONCLUSIONS: Residency in-training exams induce moderate stress levels in junior surgery residents and are accompanied by improvements in technical performance as assessed by checklist-based scales. There were no differences on the global rating scales due to stress conditions, suggesting that residents were better at following the itemized sequence of movements when stressed, but their overall global performance was not altered.

Patient care is a collective responsibility: perceptions of professional responsibility in surgery.

BACKGROUND: Changes in training are likely to affect the professionalization process, but such complex social phenomena are poorly studied by quantitative research methodologies. In contrast, qualitative research designs are more effective in exploring complex social processes. The objective of this study was to use a qualitative methodology to explore how professional responsibilities are perceived by surgical trainees and faculty in the current academic environment. METHODS: Semi-structured individual interviews of 43 surgical residents and faculty (ranging from second year residents to senior faculty) were conducted at 2 academic institutions. The interviews consisted of open-ended questions, followed by discussion of 4 written, case-based scenarios on specific issues related to professional responsibilities. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed, and then analyzed for emergent themes by 3 researchers using a grounded theory approach. RESULTS: In discussing professional responsibilities, the motivations that shaped participants' responses reflected a balance between 4 major factors: (1) patient care, (2) education, (3) self, and (4) collegial relationships. Patient care was described as being at the center of professional responsibility, but it did not necessarily supersede other factors. Rather, patient care was described as a collective responsibility, operationalized through teamwork, communication, and trust. CONCLUSIONS: Traditional medical ethics have largely focused on professional responsibility from the standpoint of individual healthcare providers. Our findings suggest it is a much more complex construct characterized by competing responsibilities and an evolving perception of patient care as a collective responsibility. Explicit acknowledgment of this framework sets the stage for educational interventions to support residents' professional development and enhance cooperative behavior among participants.

Training and evaluating spinal surgeons: the development of novel performance measures.

STUDY DESIGN: Cohort study. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a series of novel assessment measures for use during a lumbar pedicle cannulation task. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: There is increasing pressure being placed on the surgical community to develop appropriate assessment measures of technical skills as an indicator of surgical competence. To date, little research has been performed in this area in spinal surgery. METHODS: Twelve novice and 7 expert spine surgeons cannulated a complete set of lumbar pedicles on a synthetic model. Electromagnetic markers were traced to record their dominant hand and arm movements while the forces applied to the model were measured using a small force plate. The amount of wrist motion, mean forces, peak forces, and task time were evaluated. Following task completion, angles of pedicle cannulation and the number and location of all breaches in the models were recorded. RESULTS: Novice surgeons used less mean force (91 N vs. 115 N, P = 0.001) but required more time to perform each cannulation task (12.4 seconds vs. 8.2 seconds, P < 0.001). Cannulation by novices demonstrated a greater mean number of frank (far lateral) pedicle breaches (1.5 vs. 0 per individual, P = 0.002), but no differences in the angles of cannulation were seen (P = 0.988). CONCLUSION: Four variables, 3 involving process measures and 1 an outcome measure, can be used to distinguish between novice and expert spine surgeons using a simple lumbar spine pedicle cannulation task, providing evidence of their construct validity. Knowledge of these differences may be useful in objective evaluation of surgical competence and providing precise feedback during the training of this skill, thereby enhancing learning.

Duty hours reforms in the United States, France, and Canada: is it time to refocus our attention on education?

Resident duty hours restrictions have now been instituted in many countries worldwide. Such policies have resulted in a broad-based discussion in the medical literature concerning their effects on patient care, resident education, and resident well-being. To better understand the impetuses behind these changes, the authors examine not only the duty hours mandates currently in effect in the United States, Canada, and France, but also the events influencing their independent development in these three countries. In the United States, an 80-hour resident workweek was mandated by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education out of concern for patient safety. In France, a 52.5-hour workweek was decreed by the government, reflecting the broader European Working Time Directive initiated out of concern for the negative impact of extended work hours on its population. In Canada, resident unions, whose primary interest has been one of resident well-being, have negotiated a series of reduced resident duty hours that approach those mandated in the United States. At the core of these changes are unique differences in these countries' health care and medical education systems. The resulting diversity in the origin and nature of such regulations serves to highlight the lack of evidence that has guided their development and the need to refocus on the educational elements of postgraduate training.

The neurosurgical workforce in North America: a critical review of gender issues.

OBJECTIVE: The role of women in Western society has changed dramatically in the past several decades. Despite this, many gender disparities still exist for professionals in the health care sector. In neurosurgery, a disproportionately small percentage of the workforce in the United States and Canada is female. These figures are lower than most reported in other medical specialties. This review critically examines factors that may be influencing women's ability to advance in demanding subspecialties such as neurosurgery. METHODS: The literature on women in medicine, and surgery in particular, were reviewed to identify different issues facing women currently in practice in neurosurgery. In addition, the concerns of prospective trainees were examined. RESULTS: There remain many challenges for women entering neurosurgery, including unique lifestyle concerns, limited mentorship, out-dated career programs, and deep-seeded societal beliefs. Discrimination and harassment are also contributing factors. CONCLUSION: If neurosurgery is to continue to progress as a subspecialty, the issue of gender inequality needs to be scrutinized more closely. Innovative programs must be developed to meet the needs of current female faculty members and to ensure attracting the brightest individuals of both genders into a career in neurosurgery.

Safety of intracranial aneurysm surgery performed in a postgraduate training program: implications for training.

OBJECT: Patient care and educational experience have long formed a dichotomy in modem surgical training. In neurosurgery, achieving a delicate balance between these two factors has been challenged by recent trends in the field including increased subspecialization, emerging technologies, and decreased resident work hours. In this study the authors evaluated the experience profiles of neurosurgical trainees at a large Canadian academic center and the safety of their practice on patient care. METHODS: Two hundred ninety-three patients who underwent surgery for intracranial aneurysm clipping between 1993 and 1996 were selected. Prospective data were available in 167 cases, allowing the operating surgeon to be identified. Postoperative data and follow-up data were gathered retrospectively to measure patient outcomes. In 167 cases, a total of 183 aneurysms were clipped, the majority (91%) by neurosurgical trainees. Trainees performed dissections on aneurysms that were predominantly small (< 1.5 cm in diameter; 77% of patients) and ruptured (64% of patients). Overall mortality rates for the patients treated by the trainee group were 4% (two of 52 patients) and 9% (nine of 100 patients) for unruptured and ruptured aneurysm cases, respectively. Patient outcomes were comparable to those reported in historical data. Staff members appeared to be primary surgeons in a select subset of cases. CONCLUSIONS: Neurosurgical trainees at this institution are exposed to a broad spectrum of intracranial aneurysms, although some case selection does occur. With careful supervision, intracranial aneurysm surgery can be safely delegated to trainees without compromising patient outcomes. Current trends in practice patterns in neurosurgery mandate ongoing monitoring of residents' operative experience while ensuring continued excellence in patient care.