Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 14, 2026
Block Building Task Identifies Distinct Groups of Left/Right-hand Choice Patterns After Unilateral Peripheral Nerve Injury
Published on: March 21, 2025
Surgical skills acquisition among left-handed trainees-true inferiority or unfair assessment: a preliminary study
Jason Y Lee1, Phillip Mucksavage, Elspeth M McDougall
1St. Michael's Hospital, Division of Urology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5C 2T2. leejasoSMH@gmail.com
Introduction:
Studies involving the formal assessment of surgical skills have often reported inferior abilities among left-handed surgical trainees (LHT). Most surgical training curricula and assessment methods, however, are inherently geared toward right-handed trainees (RHT); potentially placing LHT at both a training and assessment disadvantage. We evaluated the effect of a hand dominance-based curriculum for acquisition of basic suturing and knot tying skills among medical students.
Methods:
After Institutional Review Board approval, first- and second-year medical students from the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine were recruited to participate in a basic suturing and knot tying skills course. Consenting students were randomized to either a left-handed curriculum or a right-handed curriculum consisting of (1) a 30-minute introductory video and (2) a 2-hour instructor-led, hands-on training session on basic suturing and knot tying. All instructional methods, instruments, and instructors were exclusively right-handed or left-handed for the right-handed curriculum or left-handed curriculum, respectively. Students were assessed on the performance of 2 suturing tasks, continuous running suturing and instrument knot tying, and performance assessments were conducted both immediately and 2 weeks posttraining.
Results:
A total of 19 students completed the training course and both assessments (8 LHT, 11 RHT). Students randomized to a curriculum "concordant" with their hand dominance performed significantly better than those randomized to a "discordant" curriculum on both tasks (p < 0.01). This difference was found at both immediate and 2 weeks posttraining assessments. Within concordant and discordant groups, there were no significant differences between LHT and RHT.
Conclusions:
This preliminary study demonstrates that medical students, both LHT and RHT, immersed in a training environment that is discordant with their hand dominance might have inferior acquisition of basic suturing and knot tying skills.
