Can light-bending glasses improve surgeons’ neck posture and reduce neck pain?

INTERVENTION: This randomized cross‐over study enrolled eligible surgeons in an academic hospital in Sweden from September to December 2021, to compare two prismatic loupes (new) and one non‐prismatic loupes (conventional) in three simulated surgical tasks, i.e., peg transfer (PT), basic suture (BS) and precision cutting (PC), in a surgical training room. Each participant performs three simulated surgical tasks, peg transfer (PT), basic suture (BS) and precision cutting (PC), in a fixed order with one of three types surgical loupes, i.e., their own non‐prismatic loupes (own), low‐tilt prismatic loupes (LT) with an angulation angle of 15° in the prism, and high‐tilt prismatic loupes (HT) with an angulation angle of 48° in the prism. Each participant is randomized, balanced, and assigned to one of the following four orders of loupes: own‐>LT‐>HT, own‐>HT‐>LT, LT‐>HT‐>own, and HT‐>LT‐> own. The assignment of order is calculated in Excel with a randomization function and announced on site. CONDITION: Work‐related musculoskeletal disorders ; Musculoskeletal Diseases PRIMARY OUTCOME: ; 1. Physical workload including:; 1.1. Inclination angle and velocity of head, trunk and both upper arms measured using inertial measurement units during each task with each type of surgical loupes; 1.2. Muscle activity of cervical erector spinae, trapezius and lumbar erector spinae measured using electromyography during each task with each type of surgical loupes; SECONDARY OUTCOME: ; 1. Perceived visual quality measured using 5‐point Likert‐type scale or 4‐point scale depending on questions with each type of surgical loupes at the end of each task; 2. Perceived body‐part discomfort measured using a Borg CR‐10 scale with each type of surgical loupes at the end of each task; 3. Surgical performance, including task completion duration measured using a timer, and number of errors evaluated by two independent surgeons with each type of surgical loupes at the end of each task; 4. Subjective evaluations and preferences of loupes measured using a semi‐structured interview on the same day at the end of the study; INCLUSION CRITERIA: 1. Currently actively working as surgeons 2. Work experience as surgeons =2 years 3. Work actively with open surgeries in vascular surgery or in otorhinolaryngology (endocrine surgery) 4. Never used prismatic surgical loupes 5. No age limitations (due to sufficiency of other criteria)