Are gamers better laparoscopic surgeons? Impact of gaming skills on laparoscopic performance in “Generation Y” students

Rabi Datta,Luise Müller,Thomas Dratsch,Stefan Haneder,Martin Richard Späth,Robert Kleinert,Roger Wahba,Patrick Sven Plum,Ferdinand Timmermann,Daniel Pinto Dos Santos,Christiane Josephine Bruns,Seung-Hun Chon,Chee Kong Chui

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0232341

Abstract

Both laparoscopic surgery and computer games make similar demands on eye-hand coordination and visuospatial cognitive ability. A possible connection between both areas could be used for the recruitment and training of future surgery residents. The goal of this study was to investigate whether gaming skills are associated with better laparoscopic performance in medical students. 135 medical students (55 males, 80 females) participated in an experimental study. Students completed three laparoscopic tasks (rope pass, paper cut, and peg transfer) and played two custom-designed video games (2D and 3D game) that had been previously validated in a group of casual and professional gamers. There was a small significant correlation between performance on the rope pass task and the 3D game, Kendall's τ(111) = -.151, P = .019. There was also a small significant correlation between the paper cut task and points in the 2D game, Kendall's τ(102) = -.180, P = .008. Overall laparoscopic performance was also significantly correlated with both the 3D game, Kendall's τ(112) = -.134, P = .036, and points in the 2D game, Kendall's τ(113) = -.163, P = .011. However, there was no significant correlation between the peg transfer task and both games (2D and 3D game), P = n.s.. This study provides further evidence that gaming skills may be an advantage when learning laparoscopic surgery.

Highlights

Laparoscopic surgery has become the gold standard for many surgical procedures and new technical developments are pushing the boundaries of the possible, extending the scope of this field to more complex surgical procedures [1, 2]
This study provides further evidence that gaming skills may be an advantage when learning laparoscopic surgery
It is has been shown that gaming experience has a positive effect on eye-hand coordination and modulates different aspects of visuospatial ability, spatial resolution and cognitive flexibility, the real effect of gaming skills on laparoscopic performance is still unknown [5,6,7,8,9,10]

Summary

Introduction

Laparoscopic surgery has become the gold standard for many surgical procedures and new technical developments are pushing the boundaries of the possible, extending the scope of this field to more complex surgical procedures [1, 2]. Known factors contributing to the difficulty of laparoscopic surgery are unfamiliar hand movements, the reduction from real-life threedimensional (3D) stereoscopic vision to a virtual two-dimensional (2D) image, and the transfer from a familiar field of vision to the distorted picture of the laparoscopic camera Another domain that trains these particular skills is video games; the impact of video gaming skills on laparoscopic skills is still open to debate. It has been shown that this generation is more proficient when it comes to gaming than previous generations [22, 23] Both laparoscopic surgery and computer games make similar demands on eye-hand coordination and visuospatial cognitive ability. A possible connection between both areas could be used for the recruitment and training of future surgery residents

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion