Background and objectives: Radical prostatectomy (RP) is a definitive surgical therapy for localized prostate cancer. Evidence suggests that the poor ergonomics of surgeons during RP may lead to work-related musculoskeletal disorders and loss of productivity. Since each surgery modality has its physical demands, we compared the ergonomic risk between laparoscopic (LRP) and robotic-assisted (RARP) radical prostatectomy.
Methods: The study assessed the posture of 10 urological surgeons during LRP and RARP surgeries with the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) scale.
Results: We found that the RARP approach resulted in lower REBA scores over the LRP procedure.
Conclusions: Robotic surgery improves body posture for the urological surgeon like in other medical specialties. However, the surgeons display harmful postures in both surgeries.
Keywords: ergonomics; laparoscopy; musculoskeletal diseases; prostate cancer; radical prostatectomy; robot surgery.
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