A journey of postgraduate in acquiring skills of manual SICS

Introduction: Cataract surgery is the most common surgery in ophthalmology. It is the stepping milestone of every budding ophthalmologist during postgraduate tenure. The learning pattern of surgical steps can provide better understanding about division of postgraduate’s curriculum. Material and Method: 60 cases underwent manual small incision cataract surgery, 20 each by first, second and third year postgraduates respectively. Surgeries were recorded for complications faced intra-operatively and its management by a single consultant surgeon. The ratios of difficulties were noted with the help of OCTET (Oxford cataract treatment and evaluation team) score. The pre and post-operative visual acuity and slit lamp examination of cases on 1st postoperative day was also noted with OCTET score table. Results: Significant decrease in duration, complication rate and postoperative OCTET score was achieved by third year post graduates in comparison with first and second year postgraduates in surgeries. Maximum difficulty observed of around 28% in sclera-corneal tunnel followed by 31.6% in acquiring continuous curvilinear capsulorhexis and 23% in delivery of nucleus. Conclusion: Surgical steps till anterior capsulorhexis can be acquired by a first year and upto nucleus delivery by second year post graduate. A third year postgraduate performs full MSICS (Manual small incision cataract surgery) effortlessly.