Kalun Portia, Dunn Krista, Wagner Natalie, Pulakunta Thejodhar, Sonnadara Ranil
Department of Surgery, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada.
Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Can Med Educ J. 2020 Dec 7;11(6):e111-e127. doi: 10.36834/cmej.69051. eCollection 2020 Dec.
Understanding the relationships between structures is critical for surgical trainees. However, the heterogeneity of the literature on visual-spatial ability (VSA) in surgery makes it challenging for educators to make informed decisions on incorporating VSA into their programs. We conducted a scoping review of the literature on VSA in surgery to provide a map of the literature and identify where gaps still exist for future research.
We searched databases until December 2019 using keywords related to VSA and surgery. The resulting articles were independently screened by two researchers for inclusion in our review.
We included 117 articles in the final review. Fifty-nine articles reported significant correlations between VSA tests and surgical performance, and this association is supported by neuroimaging studies. However, it remains unclear whether VSA should be incorporated into trainee selection and whether there is a benefit of three-dimensional (3D) over two-dimensional (2D) training.
It appears that VSA correlates with surgical performance in the simulated environment, particularly for novice learners. Based on our findings, we make suggestions for how surgical educators may use VSA to support novice learners. Further research should determine whether VSA remains correlated to surgical performance when trainees move into the operative environment.
了解结构之间的关系对外科实习生至关重要。然而，关于外科手术中视觉空间能力（VSA）的文献具有异质性，这使得教育工作者难以就是否将VSA纳入其培训项目做出明智的决策。我们对外科手术中VSA的文献进行了范围综述，以提供文献图谱并确定未来研究仍存在差距的领域。
我们使用与VSA和外科手术相关的关键词搜索数据库，直至2019年12月。两名研究人员对所得文章进行独立筛选，以纳入我们的综述。
我们在最终综述中纳入了117篇文章。59篇文章报道了VSA测试与手术表现之间存在显著相关性，并且神经影像学研究支持这种关联。然而，VSA是否应纳入实习生选拔以及三维（3D）训练相对于二维（2D）训练是否具有优势仍不明确。
在模拟环境中，VSA似乎与手术表现相关，尤其是对于新手学习者。基于我们的研究结果，我们就外科教育工作者如何利用VSA支持新手学习者提出了建议。进一步的研究应确定当实习生进入手术环境时，VSA是否仍与手术表现相关。
