Outcomes of Resident-Performed Laser-Assisted vs Manual Traditional Phacoemulsification

The study design will be a prospective study comparing laser-assisted cataract extraction cases and traditional manual phacoemulsification cases. All cases will be performed by faculty-supervised residents at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Cataract surgery training is a standard requirement of all ophthalmology residents who are part of this clinical study.

Each resident must be a post graduate year 4 (PGY-4) level resident before being asked to be a part of this clinical study. Typically, each resident will have completed approximately 30 cataract surgeries by their PGY-3 residency year of training. These traditional phacoemulsification require manual capsulorrhexis creation with which residents will have experience prior to study participation. Other critical manual surgical steps of traditional and femtosecond-laser assisted cataract surgery require similar surgical skill sets, thus residents should have surgical skills applicable to both techniques prior to study involvement.

In addition to performing 30 traditional phacoemulsification surgeries, residents also will have assisted with femtosecond laser-assisted cases during their PGY-3 training year training at the Dallas VA medical center and with staff at University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center during their cornea rotation. The femtosecond-assisted cases completed by each resident in the study at Parkland will be the Alcon Certification cases for each resident. Performing femtosecond-laser assisted cases at this level of training will provide objective insights into this new surgical technique in resident hands. Patients will not be subjected to any additional risk due to participation in this study as femtosecond laser Alcon Certification is already being performed by residents as part of their standard UT Southwestern ophthalmology training.

Patient eyes that meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria below will be randomly assigned to either the laser-assisted or the standard manual phacoemulsification group based. Following surgery, patients will return for post-operative visits at post-op day 1, post-op week 1, post-op month 1, and post-op month 3. Subjects will be followed in the Parkland Surgery Chief clinic. Subjects will not necessarily see the same study surgeon during each post-operative visit period. It should be noted this is the standard procedure as currently practiced in the Parkland ophthalmology clinic.

Verification of subject adherence to the post-operative follow-up visit schedule will be overseen by the PI throughout the course of the project. Weekly communication with sub-investigators will take place in order to review any outstanding concerns including recruitment effort, surgery schedules, and post-operative visit timelines. Arrangements for additional visits will also be reviewed and scheduled if medically necessary depending on individual patients' post-operative clinical course. Patients will be assigned to each group during the period of September 2015 through July 2016 and followed as part of the study for 3 months post-operatively.