ArticleAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences2025
Passive neck brace for surgeons.
Article in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Biomimetic Strategies in Orthosis Design: A Scoping Review of Biological Abstraction and Functional Translation.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Passive neck brace for surgeons.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
A surgeon peers downward into a body cavity when operating. Holding this position for hours across weeks, months, and years may lead to neck pain and musculoskeletal disorders. We were inspired by ungulates such as giraffes and horses, which use dorsal-ventral flexion to graze for 9-14 h per day without perceivable neck pain. Ungulates evolved a strong nuchal ligament that relieves neck muscles by stretching to support some of the weight of the head during grazing or running. In contrast, humans evolved an upright posture, and like many primates, have a reduced nuchal ligament. The goal of this study is to use the nuchal ligament as inspiration for a neck brace that passively supports the weight of the head while still permitting lateral flexion, ventral-dorsal flexion, and rotation. We assembled a prototype using an elastic band, headband, and back posture corrector. Our device augments the human nuchal ligament by using a stiff material and greater mechanical advantage. By our calculations, flexing the head ventrally 40 degrees when wearing the brace reduces the torque applied by neck muscles by 21%. Our device is a proof-of-concept that a bioinspired device can offload neck muscular tension and prevent injury.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.