title: Does surgical experience have an effect on the success of retinal detachment surgery?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the relationship between surgeon experience and success rates in retinal detachment surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  Success rates during a follow-up of 11 months of 8 surgeons who performed in total 375 retinal detachment procedures ranging from 14 to 115 cases between December 1997 and January 2002 were correlated to the total number of vitreoretinal procedures ranging between 176 and 2,587. All patients received either scleral buckling or vitrectomy, and complicated cases were excluded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean primary anatomical success rates were 0.69 ± 0.14 for scleral buckling and 0.9 ± 0.05 for primary vitrectomy (P < 0.05). The primary anatomical success rates did not correlate to the number of vitreoretinal procedures. Seven of the eight surgeons showed an intraindividual learning effect with better success rates in the second versus the first half of the observed procedures. The learning effect was correlated to the total number of procedures with a higher effect in inexperienced surgeons.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An intraindividual learning effect that was higher in inexperienced surgeons could be demonstrated. The learning effect was reduced by half after 500 vitreoretinal procedures while the primary anatomical success rates were not correlated to the number of vitreoretinal procedures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany. bmazinani@gmx.de
authors.forename: Babac A E
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Mazinani
authors.forename: Anuja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rajendram
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.forename: Gernot F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Roessler
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D059032:Learning Curve; D009885:Ophthalmology / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012163:Retinal Detachment / Q000601:surgery*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012591:Scleral Buckling / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014821:Vitrectomy / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data