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We compared surgeons’ hand strength with normative data from the Swiss population, based on the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (1991) definition that considers surgical work as “light” in terms of the level of occupational demand. Moreover, we tested the external validity of a model proposed by Angst et al¹, which considers a number of factors such as age, gender, height, weight as well as the occupational demand on the hand, within our surgeon test group.

The cross-sectional evaluation was conducted during the 2009 AO Trauma Courses held in Davos, Switzerland. The interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to compare observed values of grip and key pinch strength with those predicted by Angst et al¹.

In total, 403 trauma surgeons from 62 different nationalities were interviewed and their hand and key pinch strengths were tested. Typical respondents were male surgeons, European, orthopaedic trauma residents, seven years in their current position, and performing on average ten operations weekly. The average age was 40 years (range: 26.0 – 69.8) and mean BMI was 25. Surgeons’ grip strength was on average 50 kg (range: 22.3 – 90.0) compared to 41.5 kg (range: 20.3 – 69.0) for the Swiss population (p<0.001). Mean key pinch strength was 9.9 kg (range: 5.5 – 13.0) compared 8.1 kg (range: 4.2 – 13.0) for the Swiss population (p<0.001). Surgeons were on average 8.7 kg stronger (range: 6.8 - 10.6) regarding grip strength and 1.8 kg stronger in the key pinch test (range: 1.5 - 2.1). The model of Angst et al¹ was unable to predict grip strength with enough accuracy (ICC=0.61) and also failed in the prediction of key pinch strength (ICC<0.01), the model systematically overestimated “real” pinch. In addition to age, the best indicators of hand grip and key pinch strength are gender, height, and weight.

Our data could show that surgeons were generally stronger compared to the Swiss population. The model of Angst et al¹ did not support the external validity of our surgeon population. Further studies are needed to test if the proposed model can predict with greater accuracy the grip and key pinch strength for different occupational groups, especially for those with high demands on the hand.