Comparison of physical workload in upper extremities between left- and right-hand ultrasound scanning

Abstract

Ames, IA Cardiac sonographers suffer from high prevalence of work-related upper extremity musculoskeletal pain due to awkward postures and fatigue accumulation. Sonographers can choose either left- or right-hand scanning, or alternate between both, however, the impact of each scanning technique on the upper extremity muscles remains unknown. Four ambidextrous cardiac sonographers performed between four to six cardiac scans using left- and right-hand while postural and muscle activity were collected from specific muscles on the upper extremities. A comparison of the posture showed that apart from forearm pitch and 90th percentile upper arm deviation, upper extremity postures between the two scanning techniques did not differ significantly. Furthermore, while right-hand scanning (RHS) appeared to induce slightly higher muscle activity in the deltoids compared to left-hand scanning (LHS), the difference between the two techniques was not significant. We recommend alternating between these two techniques to distribute muscle stress evenly to prevent muscle overuse.

The Effects of Variable Tension Forces on Exoskeletons’ Effectiveness

“…Exoskeletons, a "wearable device that augments, enables, assists, and/or enhances physical activity through mechanical interaction with the body" (ASTM, 2021), have been implemented in a variety of industries. One notable industry is healthcare with nurses (Hwang et al, 2021;Miura et al, 2021), ultrasound workers (Tetteh, Wang, et al, 2022), and in surgical settings (Cha et al, 2019(Cha et al, , 2020Liu et al, 2018;Perry et al, 2007;Santoso et al, 2022;Tetteh, 2021;Tetteh, Hallbeck, et al, 2022;Tetteh, Wang, et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2021). Surgeons are a class of workers of particular interest due to their increased likelihood of developing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) from holding risky postures for extended durations during surgeries (Catanzarite et al, 2018;Stucky et al, 2018).…”