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Surgical Endoscopy
Published in: Surgical Endoscopy 8/2018

01-08-2018

Visual spatial ability for surgical trainees: implications for learning endoscopic, laparoscopic surgery and other image-guided procedures

Authors: Patrick Henn, Anthony G. Gallagher, Emmeline Nugent, Neal E. Seymour, Randy S. Haluck, Hazem Hseino, Oscar Traynor, Paul C. Neary

Published in: Surgical Endoscopy | Issue 8/2018

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Abstract

Background

In image-guided procedures, a high level of visual spatial ability may be an advantage for surgical trainees. We assessed the visual spatial ability of surgical trainees.

Methods

Two hundred and thirty-nine surgical trainees and 61 controls were tested on visual spatial ability using 3 standardised tests, the Card Rotation, Cube Comparison and Map-Planning Tests.

Results

Two hundred and twenty-one, 236 and 236 surgical trainees and 61 controls completed the Card Rotation test, Cube Comparison test and Map-Planning test, respectively. Two percent of surgical trainees performed statistically significantly worse than their peers on card rotation and map-planning test, > 1% on Cube Comparison test. Surgical trainees performed statistically significantly better than controls on all tests.

Conclusions

Two percent of surgical trainees performed statistically significantly worse than their peers on visual spatial ability. The implication of this finding is unclear, further research is required that can look at the learning and educational portfolios of these trainees who perform poorly on visual spatial ability, and ascertain if they are struggling to learn skills for image-guided procedures.
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Metadata
Title
Visual spatial ability for surgical trainees: implications for learning endoscopic, laparoscopic surgery and other image-guided procedures
Authors
Patrick Henn
Anthony G. Gallagher
Emmeline Nugent
Neal E. Seymour
Randy S. Haluck
Hazem Hseino
Oscar Traynor
Paul C. Neary
Publication date
01-08-2018
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Surgical Endoscopy / Issue 8/2018
Print ISSN: 0930-2794
Electronic ISSN: 1432-2218
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-018-6094-3

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