Orthopedic Surgeons With Occupational Injuries Receive Limited Resources

Orthopedic surgeons w ho sustain injuries in their career have very few resources to fall back upon , according to a latest study.

The study reported in the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery claims that nearly half of the orthopedic surgeons sustain atleast one injury during their entire career and most often the resources available to them are limited. This is the first study to reveal that  a great many surgeons get injured on the job during their careers. These are often termed as occupational injuries.

Among the orthopedic surgeons surveyed, nearly 25 percent reported a hand injury, 19 percent reported lower back injury, 10 percent reported neck injury and 7 percent reported shoulder injury.

"I expected a fair number of back and hand injuries, but I was surprised that 38 percent of injured respondents reported no institutional resources available to support them as they recovered," Manish Sethi, M.D., assistant professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Rehabilitation, said in a statement. "In addition, only about 25 percent of respondents said they had reported their injury to their institution."

It was evident from forty four percent of the participants that the surgeons had experienced at least one occupational injury in their career and nearly 10 percent of them had to miss their work due to the injuries. Some of the injuries experienced were significant as the surgeons had to miss at least three to four weeks of work,  and also directly impacted their performance on the operating room.

"These results would suggest that we need to think about the resources available to orthopaedic surgeons, given that this volume of missed work may have economic implications for both the surgeons and their health care systems," Sethi said.

They noticed that the surgeons who practiced from 11-20 years or from 21-30 years were more susceptible to suffer an injury than those who practiced for 10 or less than 10 years.