Evolution of a Glaucoma Fellow's Surgical Training: Improvements in Tube Shunt Case Times during the Academic Year

Purpose The aim of the study is to report changes in tube shunt placement surgical case times for glaucoma fellows during the course of the academic year. Patients and Methods Electronic health records were retrospectively reviewed to determine patient demographics, surgical case times (defined as procedure start time to procedure end time), and glaucoma fellow involvement. Only cases with a glaucoma fellow as the primary surgeon were included. Operative case times were compared by first and second halves of the academic year (beginning in July and ending in June) using a two-tailed t -test. Results Five hundred and seventy-three individual tube shunt surgeries (385 Ahmed, 188 Baerveldt) performed by 28 glaucoma fellows (17 females, 11 males) at Duke University Eye Center and University of North Carolina Medical Center were included. Overall, case times were significantly shorter in the second half of the academic year as compared with the first (55.3 ± 17.1 minutes vs. 61.0 ± 17.4 minutes, p <0.001). Both male (57.3 ± 16.8 minutes vs. 63.2 ± 18.6 minutes, p = 0.008) and female (53.5 ± 17.3 minutes vs. 59.3 ± 16.4 minutes, p = 0.003) fellows demonstrated shorter case times over the academic year; additionally, female fellows trended toward shorter case times than male fellows in both the first half ( p = 0.072) and second half ( p = 0.053) of the academic year. Fellows also exhibited shorter case times with both Ahmed implants (54.1 ± 16.2 minutes vs. 59.3 ± 15.8 minutes, p = 0.002) and Baerveldt implants (57.8 ± 18.9 minutes vs. 64.2 ± 20.0 minutes, p = 0.025) cases over the academic year. Baerveldt case times were significantly longer than Ahmed cases in the first half ( p = 0.028) and trended toward being longer than Ahmed cases in the second half ( p = 0.070). Conclusion Across 5 years at two academic institutions, glaucoma fellows had shorter primary tube shunt surgical case times in the second half of the academic year. These findings reflect improvement in surgical efficiency throughout glaucoma fellowship. These findings should be taken into consideration when scheduling trainee surgeries at academic medical centers at different points in the academic year.