No association between posture and musculoskeletal complaints in a professional bassist sample.

BACKGROUND: Professional musicians receive little attention in pain medicine despite reports of high prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints. This study aims to investigate the association between work-related postures and musculoskeletal complaints of professional bass players. METHOD: Participants were 141 professional and professional student double bassists and bass guitarists. Data about self-reported functioning, general and mental health status, location and intensity of musculoskeletal complaints and psychosocial distress were collected online with self constructed and existing questionnaires. Logistic regression analyses were performed to analyse associations between work-related postural stress (including type of instrument and accompanying specific exposures) and physical complains, adjusted for potential confounders. RESULTS: Logistic regression analyses revealed no association between complaints and the playing position of the left shoulder area in double bassists (p = 0.30), the right wrist area in the bass guitarists (p = 0.70), the right wrist area for the German versus French bowing style (p = 0.59). CONCLUSION: All three hypotheses were rejected. This study shows that in this sample of professional bass players' long-lasting exposures to postural stress were not associated with musculoskeletal complaints. This challenges a dominant model in pain medicine to focus on ergonomic postures.

One-handed musicians-more than a gimmick.

There are many musicians with acquired limitations in making music, and there are many people with a disability who would like to play a music instrument in a modified way. There is discouragingly little information about this topic in literature. This article gives an overview of "making music in a modified way." It focuses on the possibilities for musicians with one-handed functionality to overcome problems with regards to their physical condition, insufficient muscle strength, or missing parts of the upper extremity. Five categories of possibilities for the functional one-handed musicians are described: 1. one-hand reconstructed instruments, 2. one-hand compositions, 3. adaptations of the instrument for the other hand, 4. prostheses to make it possible to play with both hands/arms, and 5. other techniques which enable the use of the leg(s). The solutions described make clear that playing music in an adaptive way requires an interdisciplinary approach. The purpose of this article is to inform, and to inspire, the healthcare professional about the many possibilities for functional one-handed musicians.

Familial thrombocytosis in infancy presenting with a leukaemoid reaction.

Familial thrombocytosis (FT) is a hereditary disorder probably involving the regulation of megakaryopoiesis. This report is the first documented case of FT in infancy. The clinical course was complicated by a leukaemoid reaction which lasted for several months, in combination with failure to thrive and hepatosplenomegaly. At the age of 5 years the patient, with the exception of thrombocytosis, is healthy and without medication.