title: Resident cataract surgical training in United States residency programs.
abstract: A comprehensive survey was sent to the residency directors of 129 ophthalmology training programs in the United States. Forty percent of residents gained experience as primary surgeon during their first year; 43% performed only part of the surgery. Seventy-three percent began learning cataract extraction using the extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE) technique, 24% began with phacoemulsification, and 2% began with either method. If beginning with ECCE, 18% must have completed more than 10 before moving to phacoemulsification, 37% more than 5, and 45% more than 1. Seventy-five percent learned various phacoemulsification techniques; 25% learned only 1 technique. If beginning with 1 technique, 44% began with the scleral tunnel combined with divide and conquer. Sixty-four percent learned phacoemulsification on the Alcon Legacy, 21% on the Alcon Legacy and Storz Millennium, and 6% on the Storz Millennium. Sixty-eight percent of residents rotated out of their main facility to perform cataract surgery. The mean and median number of cataract procedures a resident completed by the end of training was 113 and 100, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Eye Foundation of Kansas City, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, 2300 Holmes Street, Kansas City, MO 64108, USA.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rowden
authors.forename: Rohit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Krishna
mesh_terms: D002387:Cataract Extraction / Q000193:education* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D009885:Ophthalmology / Q000193:education*; D014481:United States