A case-control comparison of traditional and virtual-reality training in laparoscopic psychomotor performance

Learning hand-eye coordination is a crucial part of the training programme for junior laparoscopic surgeons. This study compares laparoscopic psychomo tor performance from traditional standard abdominal box-training and virtua l-reality training. Twenty-four right-hand dominant subjects with no experi ence in laparoscopy were required to complete a novel laparoscopic task. Ei ght subjects completed all six tasks on the Minimally Invasive Surgical Tra iner Virtual Reality (MIST VR) training program. Another 16 subjects were c ase-matched to these subjects for gender, sight-corrected status and age (/- 2 years). Eight of these subjects spent the same amount of time as their yoked MIST VR counterpart training on a traditional laparoscopic cutting t ask. The other eight subjects, the control group, received no training. Ind ividuals who trained on the MIST VR program made significantly move correct incisions than their case-matched counterparts in the standard trained gro up (p < 0.05) and control group (p < 0.0001) and were also significantly mo re likely to use both hands to perform the task (p < 0.02). virtual reality appears to offer potential as a laparoscopic laboratory-training tool for the acquisition of psychomotor skills that transfer to novel laparoscopic t asks.