American scientists are using Nintendo’s popular Wii gaming console for uses never dreamed of by its creators, including patient rehabilitation and training for surgeons.

The Wii console’s unique point of difference is its motion-sensitive wireless controller, known as a ‘Wii-mote’, which controls the player’s avatar on a monitor reports LiveScience.

Surgeons in training may hone their fine motor skills by playing with a Wii.

Eight students played off-the-shelf games on a Wii for an hour before virtual laparoscopic surgery with a tool simulating a patient's body that tracks the surgeon's movements as they operate.

Those who played on the Wii scored 48% higher than those who didn’t, working more accurately and faster.

The researchers are said to be releasing a complete surgical training system designed for the Wii, where trainees will be able to practice procedures such as suturing.

"There's really no accurate way to train surgeons in the operating room, so it's virtually all the on-the-job training, which is very time-inefficient. There are surgery simulators out there, but these are still very expensive. With the Wii, we have a very easy and inexpensive platform where surgery residents can learn and develop their skills”, Arizona researcher Mark Smith said to LiveScience.

At NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, therapists use the console to help burn patients move and stretch the skin, which is crucial for a successful recovery.

"If a burn injury is near joints, the healing process makes the skin tight, so the natural tendency is not to move normally. However, if the patients don't, the joint itself starts to get stiff, so right from the beginning after a significant burn injury, patients have to start doing physical therapy” chief of burn surgery Roger Yurt said to LiveScience.

Wii games help the burn patients exercise as they need to and "get their mind off their disease, accomplish the objectives of the therapy without being routine and boring and monotonous," said researcher and physical therapist Sam Yohannan to LiveScience.

"If they're in for multiple surgeries, for an extended period of time, it gives them a little bit of escape, doing some sort of sport with scenery that's typically outdoors. And it also improves socialization, and that's a big part of burn rehabilitation and therapy, to get social support” Yohannan said.

This "Wii-search" as Yohannan sometimes calls it, "is very cutting edge, and there will be a lot more in the future, to see why and how games can better improve the health of patients. It's a great and inexpensive technology."