Hard-working ultrasound techs continue to suffer with musculoskeletal issues

A new survey of nearly 300 ultrasound technologists in Sweden has shown that, despite the dissemination of pain-prevention guidelines developed in the U.S. more than a decade ago, neck and upper extremity pain remains widespread among practitioners of the profession.

Physiotherapist Jenny Gremark Simonsen and colleagues at Lund University sent a self-administered questionnaire to sonographers in all Swedish hospital departments performing sonography (a total of 45 departments).

The survey drew a robust response, and the researchers pruned their study sample to the 291 responses that came from female sonographers who worked at least 20 hours per week and performed sonography for a minimum of four hours per week.

They excluded male sonographers due to the low number of respondents (n = 28).

The mean age of the 291 participants was 44 years, and mean seniority in sonography was 12 years.

Among the researchers’ key findings, as published online in Applied Ergonomics:

• 58 percent of respondents met the researchers’ criteria for frequency and severity of neck/shoulder pain, while 30 percent met the criteria for elbow/hand pain and 65 percent met the criteria for pain in any or both body regions.
• High job demands and high sensory demands were associated with reported pain in the neck/shoulders, as were high seniority in sonography, dissatisfaction with the computer work station and high mechanical exposure index (or MEI, which was based on 11 items involving awkward work postures, static workload and precise movements).
• Associations were found with inadequately corrected eyesight, as well as with eye complaints and headache related to computer work.
• The use of adjustable keyboards and chairs was associated with less pain.

In echocardiography, working with a straight wrist and holding the transducer with a two-handed grip or alternating hands was associated with a low prevalence of elbow/hand pain.

By way of offering recommendations, Gremark Simonsen and colleagues write that visual conditions should be optimized, including adequate eye sight correction; all equipment components should be adjustable; and other ways of handling the transducer in echocardiography should be encouraged.

In a note on their methodology, the authors cite several previous studies of sonographers that used varying definitions of pain.

“[C]omparisons with others studies must be made with caution,” they write. “Pain may be troublesome both when it is severe and when it is frequent. Our definition of pain combines frequency and intensity, which we consider more relevant than most traditionally used definitions.”

They add that the guidelines developed in the early 2000s “are well in line with the findings in this study, and should be more widely spread to encourage further improvements and interventions of the working environment.”

“Since the prevalence of pain was high,” they write, “we also suggest regular health screening for early detection and prevention of pain related to the working environment.”