Objective

During surgery, surgical technicians adopt work positions that can be harmful to their musculoskeletal system. The literature has identified that damage to the musculoskeletal system in this group depends on whether the postures are static or dynamic, the surgical specialty, the type of surgery, the location of the instrument tables and the height of the operating table. However, this study identified the postures adopted by surgical technicians of a IV level institution of Bogotá during surgery, taking into account some of their personal and work characteristics, as well as some technical conditions of the procedures assisted by them, to determine the effects of these factors on their musculoskeletal system and to suggest modifications if necessary.

Methodology

In this descriptive study, the observation units were the surgical technicians and the units of analysis were the postures adopted by them. The Ovako Working Posture Analysing System (OWAS) was used to identify and to categorize them according to their effects on the musculoskeletal system.

Results

491 postures were observed, of which 42.6% were in category 2 as per the OWAS method.

Conclusions

The adoption of category 2 postures was mainly related to the surgical specialty, the use of the Mayo instrument table, the anatomic region of the patient, the type of surgery, the shift, the number of procedures assisted within the shift and the surgical assistantship.