Role of instruction method in novices' acquisition of minimally invasive surgical basic skills.

Introduction: We investigated the impact of instruction method on novices' acquisition of minimally invasive surgical (MIS) basic skills.

Materials And Methods: One hundred five novice medical students underwent text-based (TB), video-based (VB), or faculty-tutored (FT) single-session instruction in three basic MIS skill tasks on a box trainer. Pre- and postsession, participants completed a 12-item, 5-point Likert-type scale (1=Not confident at all, 5=Completely confident) of self-efficacy for performing basic MIS skills and had performances on each task recorded.

Hand-eye dominance and depth perception effects in performance on a basic laparoscopic skills set.

Objectives: Our study determined whether depth perception defects and hand-eye dominance affect an individual's ability to perform laparoscopic skills.

Methods: The study cohort comprised 104 third-year medical students from LSU School of Medicine who completed a questionnaire including information on handedness and were tested for eye dominance and depth perception by using standardized methods. Training sessions involved an initial recorded performance, a 20-minute practice session, followed by a final recorded performance.