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Orthopaedic Surgeons’ Cardiovascular Response During Total Hip Arthroplasty

  • Original Article
  • Hip
  • Published:
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research

Abstract

The literature contains limited and contradictory information regarding the amount of physical effort and/or emotional stress needed to perform surgery. We therefore investigated cardiovascular response to psychophysical stress in orthopaedic surgeons while they were performing surgery. We monitored 29 male orthopaedic surgeons from four university centers while they performed total hip arthroplasties. Changes in their cardiovascular parameters were recorded by ambulatory monitoring methods. Exercise stress testing of each participant was used as a control state. We compared the cardiovascular response during surgery to energy requirements of everyday activities. Preoperative and postoperative testing showed lower values of cardiovascular parameters than during physically less difficult parts of the operation; physically more difficult phases of the operation additionally increased the values of parameters. We concluded performing total hip arthroplasty increases surgeons’ cardiovascular parameters because of psychologic stress and physical effort. Excitement of the cardiovascular system during total hip arthroplasty appears similar to the excitement during moderate-intensity daily activities, such as walking the dog, leisurely bicycling, or climbing stairs.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the orthopaedic surgeons who participated in this study. We also thank Prof Mijo Bergovec for expertise in cardiovascular parameters analysis; Dr Mirjana Jembrek-Gostovic for conceding cardiovascular equipment; Dr Marija Hocevar, Dr Viktor Persic, and Dr Neven Varljen for performing exercise testing; and Prof Darko Hren for statistical expertise. We are grateful to Prof Ana Marusic, Croatian Medical Journal Editor-in-Chief, for critical reading of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Zagreb University School of Medicine and Clinical Hospital Centre Zagreb, Salata 7, HR-10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Marko Bergovec MD & Dubravko Orlic MD, PhD

Authors
  1. Marko Bergovec MD
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  2. Dubravko Orlic MD, PhD
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Correspondence to Marko Bergovec MD.

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Each author certifies that he or she has no commercial associations (eg, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

Each author certifies that his or her institution has approved the human protocol for this investigation, that all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research, and that informed consent was obtained.

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Bergovec, M., Orlic, D. Orthopaedic Surgeons’ Cardiovascular Response During Total Hip Arthroplasty. Clin Orthop Relat Res 466, 411–416 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-007-0037-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-007-0037-y

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