Time and cost of teaching cataract surgery

To compare the differences in the time of completion of cataract surgery for residents and attending surgeons and to assign a dollar cost.

University of Colorado teaching hospital, Aurora, Colorado, USA.

Comparative case series.

Cataract cases were divided into 3 levels of difficulty for comparison. Main outcome measures were total case time (incision to patch) and degree of difficulty.

Nine residents and 6 attending surgeons participated in the study. Case times were collected for 324 resident cases and 319 attending surgeon cases. The mean attending surgeon case time was 25.75 minutes ± 12.32 (SD) and the mean resident case time, 46.35 ± 16.75 minutes. There was no significant difference in the degree of difficulty between resident cases and attending surgeon cases. Approximately 600 total cases were performed by 4 residents during 3 years of residency training. Taking into account the mean time of case completion for attending surgeons versus residents, the total difference in time if attending surgeons had performed 600 cataracts would be 12,360 minutes. Using a dollar cost of approximately $11.24 per minute at the institution, the cost difference was calculated to be $138,926.40.

There was a significant time and dollar cost incurred in teaching cataract surgery.

No author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.