Next time you’re about to go under the knife, you might want to ask your surgeons how much Wii training they've had to boost their medical expertise and manual dexterity.

According to a report in New Scientist magazine, researchers at the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona have found that its surgical residents performed better during simulated surgery after they’d spent some time on a Wii.

The researchers concluded that the precise on-screen movements sometimes required to use the Wii’s Remote and Nunchuck controllers were reason for the increased dexterity.

While the researchers are considering using this information to build a Wii-based training simulator for surgeons, they may prefer simply to buy a few copies of Trauma Center: Second Opinion. It turns living rooms into an operating theatres - it says here - allowing gamers and budding sawbones to perform life saving surgery on virtual patients with a selection of on-screen medical tools.

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