Back injuries forcing keyhole surgeons to retire early
SURGEONS are retiring early because of back problems caused by modern surgical techniques, experts have warned.
Keyhole surgery, where an operation is carried out through a small hole in the patient’s body, has become increasingly common because it helps patients recover more quickly. But to carry out the procedures, surgeons often have to contort themselves into awkward positions for hours at a time.
A report says one in five surgeons say they will have to retire early because they have developed back injuries from modern surgical techniques – equivalent to the NHS losing around 4,500 surgeons across England.
Three quarters of surgeons who regularly carry out the procedures have experienced back pain while doing their job and one in six has had to seek medical help for musculoskeletal injuries, a survey of doctors by robo-surgery firm CMR Surgical found.
The survey questioned 462 surgeons in the United States and Europe, including more than 150 from the UK.
Jonathan Morton, consultant colorectal surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, has previously needed physiotherapy to treat a workinduced neck injury.
Mr Morton, 42, said: “Over the last 20 years the operations have got longer because we’re now doing far more complex operations through keyhole surgery than ever before.
“I know colleagues who had to retire early or needed surgery for slipped discs – that has been a wake-up call that it could happen to me at any time.”
Mark Slack, chief medical officer at CMR Surgical, said: “If a surgeon has to take five or six weeks off work to recover, that has an immediate impact on patients and waiting lists. Then if they have to retire early, or give up surgery and move to another area of medicine, that has even more of an impact.
“We should be doing everything we can to support surgeons to extend their surgical lives.”
Richard Kerr, a Royal College of Surgeons council member, said: “It’s not surprising many surgeons report pain or discomfort as a consequence of their work.”