The physical demands of surgery are in many ways similar to those of high-performance athletes. No professional athlete would consider performing without careful attention to strengthening and physical preparedness, yet surgeons routinely place rigorous demands on their bodies without any training plan specific to their work demands. A series of exercises were developed to help stretch and strengthen the key core muscles to support surgeons during operating to prevent neck pain. This study hypothesizes that Neck pain discomfort will decrease following an 8-week intervention program compared to baseline reported scores.
Participant will be asked to fill out a series 5 questionnaires at beginning of the study, end of the 8-week intervention and 1 month later to determine how the exercise program affected their general health, neck pain, and function. 1. Demographic information about their age, height, weight, sex, surgical experience, surgical frequency, level of pain, and exercise frequency and types. (21 items) 2. A questionnaire about neck pain (10 items) 3. A questionnaire about how pain interferes with their life (8 items) 4. A questionnaire about general health (10 items) 5. A questionnaire about how much the participant typically exercise. (4 items) All these questionnaires can be completed on a computer or tablet and the data will be stored on a secure site (RedCap). This should be completed in approximately 20 minutes at each assessment. Next participants will be instructed how to perform a series of 4 exercises described in the intervention Every week the participant will be sent a 3-item questionnaire to report their level of pain, surgical burden, and exercise compliance for the week. There are only 3 multiple choice questions which should take approximately 1 minute to complete per week.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
41
Participants will be trained, by a physical therapist, to perform a set of four daily exercises requiring 1 sets of 2 minutes for each exercise totaling 8 minutes of targeted exercise per day for 8 weeks of the intervention. These exercises will be progressed or modified every 2-4 weeks to assure the participant is receiving maximal benefit for their exercise intervention.
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky, United States
Change in Neck Disability Index
The Neck Disability Index is 10 items, with each item consisting of likert type scale ranging from 0-4 with a lower score indicating less disability. The 10 items are summed for a total of potential 50 points which is then normalized to 100% scale by multiplying by 2.
Time frame: Baseline, at end of 8 weeks of intervention
Worse Neck Pain
Numeric pain rating scale of worse pain for the week in the neck. Scale ranges from 0=no pain to 10=worst pain imaginable
Time frame: Baseline, at end of 8 weeks of intervention
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