ABSTRACT
This research has as its main objective to evaluate the workload of volunteer surgeons of three hospitals in Porto Alegre, State of Rio Grande do Sui, Brazil, during elective surgeries of low, moderate and high levels of complexity. The objectives were i) to investigate the physical demand level by means of field observation, questionnaires, posture assessment technique (HIGNETT & MeAT AMNEY, 2000), Heart Rate (HR), Blood Pressure (BP) (systolic and diastolic) and catecholamine (adrenaline and noradrenalin); ii) to suggest a preliminary proposal to physical workload. The results indicated moderate physical workload amongst surgeons. The results suggested that the youngest surgeons (novice) have more mental effort and less physical effort than the oldest surgeons (seniors) who have less mental effort in all levels of surgery complexity but more physical effort during surgeries of low level of complexity. A seat-standing position was indicated as a preliminary proposal to reduce the physical workload.
