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Left-handed surgeons: are they left out?
Prasad S Adusumilli1, Christian Kell, Jae-Hyung Chang
1Department of Surgery, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, New York, USA. adusumip@mskcc.org
Background:
Left-handedness has been considered a simple inconvenience by some or something as convoluted as "the sinister," the Latin word for the left, by others. One in ten medical personnel is left-handed. The perceptions of left-handed surgeons regarding their laterality related inconveniences are unknown.
Objectives:
To determine the perceptions of left-handed surgeons and the way it has affected their surgical training and career.
Design And Setting:
Web-based survey of left-handed surgeons.
Participants:
Left-handed surgeons in 2 boroughs of New York City, Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Methods:
Distribution and completion of the survey.
Main Outcome Measure:
Career-oriented concerns of left-handed surgeons.
Results:
Three percent of left-handed surgeons received laterality related mentoring during medical school. Ten percent of the programs mentored left-handed surgical residents, and 13% of the programs provided left-handed instruments during surgical residency. Laparoscopy and laparoscopic instruments did not eliminate the problems associated with instrument handling to left-handed surgeons. Ten percent of the left-handed surgeons expressed concerns when asked whether they would be comfortable being treated by another left-handed surgeon when they are the patients themselves.
Conclusions:
This study reveals the perceptions of left-handed surgeons in adapting to a right-handed world. Early laterality related mentoring in medical school and during surgical residency with provision of left-handed instruments might reduce the inconveniences of left-handed surgeons learning.