Authors (including presenting author) :
Au CL(1), Leung PKC(1), Ko TC(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Department of Ophthalmology, Tung Wah Eastern Hospital
Introduction :
Ophthalmic surgery shares some similarities with General Surgery in its basis as surgery; cataract surgery however is in essence microscopic surgery and technically different. Current mainstream Ophthalmology training curriculum does not require prior surgical experience.
Objectives :
This study compares cataract surgery outcomes amongst Ophthalmology trainees who possess experience of previous General Surgery training than those without.
Methodology :
Retrospective analyses were done on cataract surgeries performed in 2015–2019. Surgeons, patient demographics, visual acuity with refractive outcomes before and after cataract surgery data were extracted. Eyes with pre-operative detectable morbidity other than cataract were excluded. The first 30 independent clear-corneal incision Extra-Capsular Cataract Extraction of each trainee were included. Eyes identified were grouped into two groups, according to their surgeons with and without prior General Surgery training. Statistical analyses were performed using t-tests and Chi-square tests.
Result & Outcome :
A total of 180 eyes were included for analysis. Six resident trainees were included, half without any General Surgery training, whereas three trainees underwent prior 6 months of basic General Surgery training in a university teaching hospital. Post-operative corneal astigmatism increment was found to be 1.16 Diopters (p=0.002, 95% CI 0.46-1.86) less for cataract surgeries performed by residents with prior General Surgery training. Otherwise, post-operative visual acuity improvement and complication rates were not statistically significant between the two groups. In conclusion, surgical skills learnt in macroscopic surgery under General Surgery training is transferrable to microscopic Ophthalmology surgery; in reverse corneal suturing is a possible macroscopic suture skill training model for General Surgery resident training.
