Abstract
Purpose :
Classic phacoemulsification was done with a standard handpiece with infusion and phaco, as was irrigation and aspiration. With the advent of the separation of these functions into two different handpieces, smaller incisions and different surgical approaches have been developed. In training residents EMK became facile with non-dominant hand capsular rhexis. This technique has been used to do the rhexis through paracentesis incisions. It is likely that bimanual techniques will be a greater factor in cataract surgery in the future. It is not clear if it is better to become facile with the rhexis initially with the dominant hand before learning with the non-dominant hand, or to learn both simultaneously. Using a surgical simulator we compare two different approaches to teaching a capsular rhexis technique with the non-dominant hand. We hypothesize that the series group will have better scores on the surgical simulator with their non-dominant hand at the end of the 4 week period.
Methods :
6 residents were placed into two different categories: 3 into parallel dominant and non-dominant hand training, and 3 others into series hand training. The parallel group will practice for 4 weeks to do a capsular rhexis with their dominant and non-dominant hands, giving equal time to both. The series group will practice on the surgical simulator for 2 weeks with their dominant hand exclusively, and then train with the non-dominant hand exclusively. We will also do some similar trials with experienced surgeons who have not been doing rhexis with the non-dominant hand.
Results :
All data was gathered from the surgical simulator at the end of the 4 week period. The data was pooled in the parallel and series group. Scores were averaged and an independent T test was used to determine statistical significance. The average score of the parallel trained group was (will gather and submit). The average score of the series trained group was (will gather and submit) P-value was (will gather and submit).
Conclusions :
The (X) group had higher scores overall on the surgical simulator. We feel that there is benefit to training in this method.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.