Visuospatial ability correlates with cataract and vitreoretinal surgical performance in Eyesi intraocular surgery simulator

Session Details

Session Title: Imaging

Session Date/Time: Tuesday 16/09/2014 | 08:00-10:30

Paper Time: 10:07

Venue: Capital Hall B

First Author: : M.Selvander SWEDEN

Co Author(s): :    P. Åsman              

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To analyze if visuospatial ability correlates with performance in an intraocular surgical simulator among individuals naïve to intraocular surgery.

Setting:

Department of Clinical Sciences, Malmö: Ophthalmology, Skåne University Hospital, Lund University, Sweden

Methods:

65 medical students participated in the study. The study took place during their ophthalmology rotation. Training started with posterior segment modules forceps training, posterior hyaloid training and ILM peeling. In the anterior segment, the modules cataract forceps training, capsulorhexis and phaco divide and conquer in that order were used. Instructional videos showing the procedures and highlighting important parts of the procedures, were available on the student web before the sessions and the students were instructed to watch these videos before going to the training session. When needed, the videos were shown again before the start of each module. Before attending simulator training, the students were assessed on their visuospatial ability by taking the MRT-A test. The study was conducted during two semesters and due to scheduling, 26 of the students performed the posterior segment and anterior segment training at two different occasions 1-2 weeks apart and the rest made the training during one session. None of the participants had previous experience with an intraocular surgical simulator. Simulation performance scores were correlated with the visuospatial scores using Spearman correlation.

Results:

Visuospatial ability correlated with performance in the posterior segment (p=0.022, r=0.296) as well as in the anterior segment (p=0.007, r=0.362). More specifically, correlation was found for the posterior hyaloid training (p=0.002, r=0.396) but not for forceps training or ILM peeling modules. Correlation was also found for cataract forceps training (p=0.017, r=0.312) but not for Capsulohrexis and Phaco divide and conquer.

Conclusions:

Visuospatial ability measured by MRT-A score correlated with performance in both anterior and posterior segment simulated surgery.

Financial Interest:

NONE