Correlation of basic motor skills with arthroscopic experience

Objectives: One of the methods in motor skill teaching is to furnish the students with the individual skills drawn from the target procedure. This method requires identifi¬cation and defining of all components of the target proce¬dure. This study aimed to define basic motor skills com¬posing arthroscopic skillfulness. Methods: A total of 42 orthopedists (mean age 38±8 years) were enrolled. The study group was comprised of 17 experi¬enced orthopedists working at least for 10 years as a special¬ist and performing more than 50 arthroscopic procedures per year. The control group included 25 young orthopedists or residents having an arthroscopic experience of less than three years. All the participants were assessed simultaneously and in the same experimental setting. Each participant was tested after having been shown to use in vitro skill development in¬struments simulating arthroscopic basic motor skills. Results: Compared to the control group, the experienced group had significantly higher mean age (42 vs. 34.4 years), longer duration of arthroscopic experience (12.4 vs. 1.6 years), and greater number of the arthroscopies performed per year (93.9 vs. 26.9) (p=0.000). The mean anticipation time (p=0.028) and two-arm coordination time (p=0.043) were significantly shorter in the experienced group. In correlation analysis, duration of arthroscopic experience was correlated with the mean anticipation time (r=-0.41, p=0.008) and two- arm coordination time (r=-0.33, p=0.033). In addition, the mean anticipation time decreased significantly as the number of arthroscopies increased (r=-0.446, p=0.003). Conclusion: Some basic motor skills correlate with ar¬throscopic competence. The use of these motor skill in¬struments in arthroscopy training may aid to improve ar- throscopic skills.