Washington, Feb 22 Video games could help surgeons perform better keyhole surgery, says a New York based study.

The procedure, also known as laparoscopic surgery, involves handling of small surgical instruments and going into the patient’s body through a small hole or incision. The surgeon operates using a television screen to see where to move the instruments.

The researchers, including Dr Douglas Gentile, studied 33 surgeons based at New York’s Beth Israel Medical Centre and ran a cross-sectional analysis to compare participants’ laparoscopic and suturing skills against video game experience and scores, reported the health portal Medical News Today.

They found that nine young surgeons who had played video games for at least three hours a week made 37 percent fewer mistakes and worked 27 percent faster than 15 surgeons who had never played video games.

The nine surgeons with past experience of video game playing also scored 42 percent higher overall on the range of surgical skill tests.

The researchers admitted that their study has limitations because it was done on a small number of surgeons. They warned that indiscriminate video game play is not a panacea and asked the media not to distort the message in their study.(IANS)