Surgeon hand size and grip strength for the design of surgical instruments

Abstract

Background

Hand size and poor surgical instrument design have been identified as risk factors for musculoskeletal injuries among surgeons. However, there is a lack of large databases of anthropometric data to support the surgical instrument design process. The goals of this study were to document hand size and grip strength for a large group of surgeons and to investigate the relationships between these measures and demographic characteristics.

Study design

A cross-sectional observational study was conducted at the ACS Surgical Ergonomics Hand-on Clinic at the Clinical Congress 2022. The length and breadth of the dominant hand and the grip strength of both hands were measured from 220 surgeons (123 male, 97 female). Participants also completed a demographic questionnaire, including age, stature, gender, glove size, surgical specialty, and experience.

Results

Hand length and breadth were significantly different by gender (length males = 19.1 cm and females = 17.3 cm, p < 0.01; breadth males = 8.8 cm and females = 7.7 cm, p < 0.01). The median glove size was 7. Female hand grip strength was approximately 68 % of that of the males (p < 0.01). Average grip strength was equivalent across age groups.

Conclusion

This study provided important hand size and grip strength data that can be used by surgical instrument developers to implement more inclusive instrument designs. The sample of over 200 surgeons provides one of the largest datasets collected using in-person measurement methods. The grip strength findings indicate that the surgeons were consistent with the general US adult population.