Abstract
Purpose :
Recurrence is a major complication of pterygium surgery. There is limited data on how much the surgeon’s experience contributes to recurrence rates, specifically as it pertains to trainee ophthalmology residents. We performed a retrospective, cohort study to compare recurrence rates after pterygium surgery performed by attending physicians and trainee residents in our institution.
Methods :
We analyzed data of pterygium surgeries performed by trainee residents and attending physicians in an academic institution in South Texas in the years 2008-2019. All residents’ surgeries were performed under direct supervision of an attending physician. Only primary pterygium cases with a minimum postoperative follow-up of six months were included. Patients’ demographics, primary surgeon, use of conjunctival autograft (CAU) or amniotic membrane graft (AMG), recurrence of pterygium, follow-up length, and complications were recorded.
Results :
This study included 240 eyes of 229 patients with a mean age of 55.6 ± 12.3 years (range, 28-91 years). Of these eyes, 100 surgeries were performed by attending physicians (including 87 with CAU and 13 with AMG) and 140 surgeries by trainee residents (including 119 with CAU and 21 with AMG). There were no significant differences between the attending and resident groups regarding age, sex, and surgical technique (CAU versus AMG). Patients were followed for an average of 19.8 ± 15.2 months. No statistically significant differences were found between attending physicians and residents when comparing the rate of pterygium recurrence for either CAU (6.8% vs 10.0%, respectively, p=0.42) or AMG (69.2% vs 47.6%, respectively, p=0.22). Moreover, there were no significant differences in other postoperative complications between the groups.
Conclusions :
Our results suggest that pterygium recurrence rates are similar between attending physicians and supervised trainee residents. Thus, acceptable outcomes can be expected when pterygium surgery is performed by a supervised ophthalmology resident.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.