The six most common resident cataract surgery mistakes

Learning cataract surgery during ophthalmology residency is critically important for many reasons. It is the most widely performed ophthalmic surgery, it teaches intraocular surgical techniques, it helps to develop surgical judgment, and it can restore an amazing level of vision to our patients. There are quite a few pitfalls in learning cataract surgery, and after teaching more than 100 resident ophthalmologists over the past 16 years, I have found that the same types of mistakes tend to be made early in the learning curve.Remember that it is not “just a surgery” but rather it is an invasive procedure that will change the way your patients see, every waking moment, for the rest of their lives. Being prepared ahead of time allows you to have a smoother and safer surgery. If the patient has a white cataract, you will know ahead of time to have the trypan blue dye ready. If the patient has pulmonary disease with orthopnea, you will need to adjust the bed position as well as your phaco machine settings. If the patient is a poorly controlled diabetic, then postoperative healing can be compromised and the complication rate can be higher. You must know the complete ophthalmic history of your patients as well as their systemic conditions that can affect the surgery and the outcome.