This prospective, observational cohort study of 116 patients found that residents could participate in ∼40% of vitreoretinal surgery cases with good visual and anatomical outcomes. Ophthalmology residents can participate in vitreoretinal surgery with appropriate supervision. Surgical training is a key component of ophthalmology residency. For a variety of extraocular and anterior segment procedures, studies evaluating outcomes and complications in resident-performed surgeries have found equivalent outcomes to attending-performed surgeries, except resident cases have longer operative times. In vitreoretinal surgery (VRS), however, only survey results exist. One report showed that, by the end of their residency, over 30% of residents reported performing a pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) as the primary surgeon. A second study reported that 60% of surveyed residents had performed at least 1 primary PPV. Thus, a significant gap exists in the VRS education literature regarding resident involvement, surgical outcomes, operative time, and safety.
Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Author