The Physical Demands of Attaching Surgical Table Sections

With the many manual material-handling demands placed on healthcare workers (e.g., patient handling, equipment manipulation, procedural setup), they are at high risk of experiencing work-related musculoskeletal injuries. Many surgical table sections are heavy and require awkward, repetitive postures to attach — but these physical demands on healthcare workers have received little consideration.

While object mass’ relationship to physical effort is well established,¹ less is known about hand grip location relative to the center of mass.² In this study, a team of Baxter researchers examined the effect of hand grip location and center of mass on physical effort during a surgical table section attachment task.²