Outcomes of trabecular microbypass surgery: Comparison of resident trainees and attending surgeons

Purpose To determine the efficacy, safety, and surgical outcomes of trabecular microbypass stent (iStent) surgery performed by resident trainees and attending surgeons. Setting Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Design Retrospective case series. Methods Records of all patients who had microbypass stent surgery by a resident at Wills Eye Hospital were retrospectively reviewed. The attending-performed group included any patient who had a microbypass stent implanted by an attending surgeon on the same day a resident case was performed. Results Between 2016 and 2018, 31 microbypass stents were implanted by a resident supervised by an attending and 93 microbypass stents were implanted by an attending surgeon on the day a resident case was performed. The mean follow-up was 16.2 months ± 17.9 (SD). The mean intraocular pressure (IOP) decreased from 16.0 ± 4.6 mm Hg at baseline to 14.0 ± 3.1 mm Hg at most recent follow-up visit in the resident group (P = .02) and from 17.5 ± 4.8 mm Hg to 15.1 ± 4.3 mm Hg, respectively, in the attending group (P  Conclusion Microbypass stent implantation by resident trainees with attending supervision had similar efficacy and safety as surgery performed by attending surgeons.