A Canadian research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET highlights how a surgeon’s ability to execute a complex procedure is related to their degree of visual-spatial ability. Although some study participants were found to be more competent than others, those with low visual-spatial-ability scores improved their performance with repeated practice.
Anecdotally, visual-spatial ability is thought to be important in competency in specific surgical procedures. To test this hypothesis, Kyle Wanzel, Stan Hamstra, and colleagues from the University of Toronto, Canada, assessed 37 surgical residents who completed six tests of visual-spatial ability, which ranged from low-level to high-level visual processing (from the recognition of simple shapes to the ability to mentally rotate two-dimensional and three-dimensional block figures). The investigators then assessed their ability to complete and learn a spatially-complex surgical procedure.
Residents with higher visual-spatial scores did significantly better in the procedure. After practice and feedback, residents with lower scores achieved a similar level of competency.
Stan Hamstra comments: “This is an initial attempt to understand what is involved in learning a surgical procedure, for instance, the role played by certain perceptual and cognitive abilities. We intend to study other surgical procedures using this approach to increase our understanding of how best to teach these procedures and how to identify individuals who might benefit most from special training. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic application of basic results in vision science to surgical training.” (quote by e-mail; does not appear in published paper).
Contact: Dr Stanley J Hamstra, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1L5, Canada; T) +1 416 978 6424; F) +1 416 340 3792; E) s.hamstra@utoronto.ca
Journal
The Lancet