title: The predictive value of aptitude assessment in laparoscopic surgery: a meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Current methods of assessing candidates for medical specialties that involve laparoscopic skills suffer from a lack of instruments to assess the ability to work in a minimally invasive surgery environment.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  A meta-analysis was conducted to investigate whether aptitude assessment can be used to predict variability in the acquisition and performance of laparoscopic skills.
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed, PsycINFO and Google Scholar were searched to November 2014 for published and unpublished studies reporting the measurement of a form of aptitude for laparoscopic skills. The quality of studies was assessed with QUADAS-2. Summary correlations were calculated using a random-effects model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-four studies were found to be eligible for inclusion; six of these studies used an operating room performance measurement. Laparoscopic skills correlated significantly with visual-spatial ability (r = 0.32, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.25-0.39; p < 0.001), perceptual ability (r = 0.31, 95% CI 0.22-0.39; p < 0.001), psychomotor ability (r = 0.26, 95% CI 0.10-0.40; p = 0.003) and simulator-based assessment of aptitude (r = 0.64, 95% CI 0.52-0.73; p < 0.001). Three-dimensional dynamic visual-spatial ability showed a significantly higher correlation than intrinsic static visual-spatial ability (p = 0.024).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In general, aptitude assessments are associated with laparoscopic skill level. Simulator-based assessment of aptitude appears to have the potential to represent a job sample and to enable the assessment of all forms of aptitude for laparoscopic surgery at once. A laparoscopy aptitude test can be a valuable additional tool in the assessment of candidates for medical specialties that require laparoscopic skills.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Medical Centre Leeuwarden, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Kelvin H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Kramp
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Hospital Group Twente, Almelo, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marc J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: van Det
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Medical Centre Leeuwarden, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Christiaan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hoff
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.|Department of Epidemiology, Leeuwarden Medical Center, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Nic J G M
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Veeger
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Henk O
authors.initials: HO
authors.lastname: ten Cate Hoedemaker
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Medical Centre Leeuwarden, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.|Post Graduate School of Medicine, University Medical Center Groningen and University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre E N
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Pierie
mesh_terms: D001076:Aptitude; D001077:Aptitude Tests; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000193:education* / Q000592:standards; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D017594:Publication Bias; D000066908:Simulation Training / Q000379:methods; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology