Quantifying the effectiveness of a passive trunk-support exosuit at reducing erector spinae muscle fatigue during a quasi-static posture maintenance task

The objective of this study was to explore the effectiveness of a passive back-support exosuit at reducing low back muscle fatigue during an 18-minute trunk posture maintenance task. On two separate days sixteen participants performed an 18-minute trunk posture profile that reflected trunk flexion postures observed during a challenging vascular surgery procedure. On one day they performed the procedure with the support of the exosuit, on the other day without. Test contractions were performed every three minutes to capture the time-dependent electromyographic activity of the bilateral erector spinae muscles. Time domain (amplitude) and frequency domain (median frequency) measures of erector spinae muscle fatigue were assessed. Results revealed that the exosuit significantly reduced the measures of erector spinae muscle fatigue in terms of both amplitude (6.1%) and median frequency (5.3%), demonstrating a fatigue reduction benefit of the exosuit in a realistic surgical posture maintenance task. To examine the potential adoption of a back-support exosuit system in the surgical environment, this study used an 18-minute posture maintenance task that reflected trunk flexion postures observed during a vascular surgery procedure and suggests that the exosuit system can effectively reduce low back muscle fatigue during a vascular surgical procedure.