Abstract
Introduction
Doctors with disability are likely to face major life crises, challenges and distressing emotions from unforeseen circumstances that threaten their physical well-being. We aimed to identify the existence of work-related pain and discomfort that may cause surgeon’s disability. Surgeons who were struck with unpredictable disasters leading to disabilities were also reviewed.
Methods
We conducted a 10-year literature review. In addition, citations about surgeons’ physical disabilities were complemented with commentaries about disabled surgeons from gray literature. The quantitative citations were quality assessed by MERSQI scores and evidence graded according to GRADE. For the qualitative study part, the severely traumatized surgeons were analysed by means of Cullberg’s crisis phases (CCP) and analysed from Tedeschi and Calhoun’s post-traumatic growth perspective (PTG).
Results
Altogether 3593 citations from PubMed were studied, and 10 citations met inclusion criteria with a total of 11591 participants. We included 6 surgeons subjected to highly traumatic events complicating their medical career. Our quantitative citations’ mean MERSQI score was 11.73 (SD .79) and the citations’ evidence value completed grade II (moderate quality: 11.26 to 12.00 scores). Work-related musculoskeletal pain and occupational injuries may lead to physical disabilities. The accidentally traumatized surgeons fought through the four CCP phases and reached successfully the PTG stage.
Conclusions
The surgical workforce is at high risk of work-related musculoskeletal morbidity which can progress to chronic pain and disruption of surgeon’s career. Surgeons with disabilities faced serious barriers in their career. Institutions and healthcare systems must urgently develop support strategies for surgeons with disabilities.
Authors’ contributions
Michael El Boghdady: Substantial contributions to conception and design, analysis of data, drafting the article, revising it critically for important intellectual content and final approval of the version to be published.
Béatrice Marianne Ewalds-Kvist: Substantial contributions to conception and design, interpretation and analysis of data, drafting the article and final approval of the version to be published.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).