Evaluation of the Console in Acquiring Laparoscopic Skills through Video Gaming

Video gaming experience and practice is known to help attain and improve laparoscopic skills. We compared the impact of Wii (Nintendo, Kyoto, Japan) and XBox (Microsoft Inc., Redmond, WA) gaming experience on laparoscopic skills.

Observational study.

Tertiary hospital.

Twenty-seven selected medical student volunteers with no previous laparoscopy experience.

A selected cohort of medical students completed a questionnaire on their video gaming experience and were asked to play a game each on the Wii console and on the Xbox for 10 minutes each. They were then assessed on predefined laparoscopic skills with standardized objective scoring by 2 independent assessors. The skills tested were stacking ice cubes in set time, putting discs through strings in set time, and circle cutting.

Score was allocated for each video gaming session and for the laparoscopic session. The video gaming skills score was based on points achieved during a stipulated time period on 2 different consoles. Laparoscopy skills were assessed based on an agreed scoring matrix that involved appropriate weighting of the score based on importance of the task. The laparoscopy skills scores correlated significantly with both Xbox and Wii scores. Correlations between laparoscopic task scores were further analyzed by game console, Wii and Xbox. There was a stronger correlation between the Wii highest score and the total of the laparoscopic skills score (Spearman correlation coefficient = .734; p = .0001) compared with the correlation between the Xbox and the total laparoscopic skills score (Spearman correlation coefficient = .412; p = .033).

We confirm the correlation between video gaming and laparoscopic skills. Further, we conclude that the correlation is stronger with the Wii console compared with the Xbox for psychomotor skills, perhaps due to the similarity of action between the Nintendo Wii remote and laparoscopic instruments. Thus, practicing video gaming on the Nintendo Wii console over Xbox may improve manual dexterity laparoscopic skills. However, research of larger cohort studies with different games would provide further insight into the best methods for future simulated learning.