A potential complication of laparoscopy--the surgeon's herniated cervical disk.

Almost all operations that were traditionally performed by open laparotomy operations can be done laparoscopically; however, surgeons may experience several negative health effects. A 37-year-old gynecologic laparoscopist had a herniated intervertebral disk at C5-6 level. Due to a negative trauma history, a possible explanation may be the nonergonomic posture that he held while performing laparoscopic surgery for many hours. To reduce the risk of this complication, we recommend that surgeons' spatial orientation and hand-eye coordination for laparoscopy be improved by sequential phases of training.