Resident Cataract Surgery: Review of a Rural Teaching Hospital's Experience

A retrospective review of all intracapsular cataract operations (499 eyes) performed at The Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital from July 1973 to January 1980 revealed that 72% (359) were performed by Albany Medical Center Ophthalmology residents as part of their third-year training affiliation. The residents' operative results (94.9% with postoperative 20/20 to 20/40 visual acuity in age group 55 to 64 years) and complication rates (vitreous loss 4.2%) were similar to the data from the 1975 report of the cataract survey of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology's Phacoemulsification Committee. Details of the program and data are presented. The results show that residents can perform supervised cataract surgery at the same risk to the patient as reported in the 1975 compilation of 400 participating Academy ophthalmologists.