Evaluating complications in cataract surgeries performed by resident trainees at a tertiary care hospital in Rajkot district of Gujarat

Abstract

Cataract surgery is an important part of the ophthalmology residency program. By providing residents with the opportunity to develop surgical skills, ophthalmology programs can ensure that their residents are well-prepared for successful careers in the field. While most cataract surgeries are successful, complications can occur like infection, inflammation, corneal edema, and posterior capsule opacification, however, rates may differ with surgeon’s experience. This study aims to determine the types and rates of various complications in cataract surgery performed by resident trainees.: This was a retrospective hospital based observational study that included patients operated for cataracts by manual SICS at a Tertiary care hospital in Rajkot. Postoperative outcomes were evaluated into three groups: surgeries performed during residents in the first year of training (group 1), surgeries performed during the second year (group 2), and surgeries performed during the third year (group 3). The outcome was the rate of postoperative complications in each group and collected data were entered in a Microsoft Excel sheet. Qualitative data were presented as frequency and percentages and compared by the chi-square test. The P-value of ≤0.05 was considered significant. A total of 492 patients were evaluated in the study, in which 102 patients (20.7%) were operated on by first-year residents (group1), 189 patients (38.4%) were operated on by second-year residents (group 2) and 201 patients (40.9%) were operated by third-year residents(group3). The overall rate of the intraoperative complication in our study was 32.3% with the incidence of intraoperative complications being 17.4%(n=86/492) and postoperative complications being 14.8% (n=73/492). The most common intraoperative complication was PCR with vitreous loss (10.4%) and the most common postoperative complication was corneal edema seen in 6.5% of patients.: Resident trainees showed a better performance in the form of decreased postoperative complications and surgical competency was also found to improve as surgical experience increased. Incorporating surgical training as part of a routine curriculum can improve the residents' learning curve.