Can trainees perform Ahmed glaucoma valve surgery as effectively as attendings?

OBJECTIVE: To compare the surgical outcomes and early postoperative complications of Ahmed glaucoma valve (AGV) implantation performed by residents with those performed by attending physicians. METHODS: This is a retrospective, case–control study. Data were gathered from chart reviews of consecutive cases of AGV model FP7 implantation between January 2014 and July 2017. Postoperative 1-year results of patients who had at least 3 months follow-up were evaluated. RESULTS: One hundred and forty-four eyes of 144 patients were included in this study: 72 patients in the resident group, and 72 age- and sex-matched patients in the attending group. Hyphema and shallow anterior chamber were significantly more common in the resident group vs. attending group (25% vs. 2.8% and 19.4% vs. 7.0%; P = 0.001 and P = 0.04, respectively). Neovascular glaucoma (NVG) was more common in resident vs. attending group (30.6% vs. 1.4%; P < 0.001). No significant difference in mean intraocular pressure (IOP) was found at any postoperative follow-up visits between the surgery groups (P > 0.05, for all). The number of postoperative visits within 3 months was similar between the groups (P = 0.84). CONCLUSION: Resident-performed AGV surgery lowered IOP, similar to attending-performed surgery. More frequent complications were observed in the resident group, which might be due to the predominance of NVG in this group.