Hand-Wrist Disorders in Chainsaw Operators: A Follow-Up Study in a Group of Italian Loggers

Federica Masci, Giovanna Spatari, Concetto Mario Giorgianni, Elisa Pernigotti, Laura Maria Antonangeli, Vittorio Bordoni, Alberto Magenta Biasina, Luca Pietrogrande and Claudio Colosio
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Federica Masci: Department of Health Sciences of the University of Milano and International Centre for Rural Health of the Occupational Health Unit of the Hospitals Santi Paolo e Carlo, 20142 Milano, Italy
Giovanna Spatari: Department of Biomedical, Dental and Morphological and Functional Imaging, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy
Concetto Mario Giorgianni: Department of Biomedical, Dental and Morphological and Functional Imaging, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy
Elisa Pernigotti: Post Graduate School in Orthopedics and Traumatology, University of Milan, 20142 Milano, Italy
Laura Maria Antonangeli: Department of Health Sciences of the University of Milano and International Centre for Rural Health of the Occupational Health Unit of the Hospitals Santi Paolo e Carlo, 20142 Milano, Italy
Vittorio Bordoni: Post Graduate School in Occupational Medicine, University of Milan, 20122 Milano, Italy
Alberto Magenta Biasina: Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology School of Santi Paolo and Carlo ASST of Milan, 20142 Milano, Italy
Luca Pietrogrande: Department of Health Sciences, University of Milan, 20142 Milano, Italy
Claudio Colosio: Department of Health Sciences of the University of Milano and International Centre for Rural Health of the Occupational Health Unit of the Hospitals Santi Paolo e Carlo, 20142 Milano, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 14, 1-11

Abstract: Despite the mechanization process implemented in arboriculture, logging tasks are still manually performed by chainsaw operators, which therefore are exposed to the risk of developing hand-wrist musculoskeletal disorders. Our research aimed to: (a) define whether the slight changes observed in 2017 showed an evolution to overt diseases; (b) study some risk determinants for these diseases such as age, working experience, and performing a secondary job. We recruited in a two-year follow-up study, 38 male forestry workers performing logging tasks employed in the Sicilian Forestry Department located in Enna. All the subjects underwent: (1) personal data collection; (2) administration of questionnaire addressed at upper limbs symptoms with a hand chart; (3) physical examination of the upper limbs, including Tinel’s and Phalen’s maneuvers; (4) ultrasound investigation of the hand-wrist area. In the two-year follow-up study we registered an overall increasing in wrist disorders, thus we can assume that forestry workers may be a target population for wrist diseases and deserve a particular attention in workers’ health surveillance programs. Interestingly, the prevalence of wrist-hand disorders resulted to be higher in younger workers.

Keywords: logging; musculoskeletal disorders; wrist; ultrasound investigation; CTS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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