Search

Aim: To evaluate the surgical outcomes of phacoemulsification performed at National University Hospital, Singapore, with emphasis on the results achieved by residents.Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of surgical outcomes of patients who underwent phacoemulsification in a restructured hospital in 2008. The study included 318 eyes of patients of predominantly Asian descent. Pre- and postoperative best-corrected visual acuity, perioperative complications and associations of patient, surgical and surgeon factors were studied. One-way analysis of variance for means, chi-squared test for proportions, and multivariate analyses were performed to determine factors associated with postoperative best-corrected visual acuity outcomes. Main outcome measures included postoperative best-corrected visual acuity, degree of improvement in best-corrected visual acuity, and achievement of specific best-corrected visual acuity targets of 6/9 and 6/12 at postoperative months 1 and 3.Results: Duration of surgery of less than 20 minutes was found to be significantly associated with better postoperative best-corrected visual acuity. Level of surgical experience was also associated with betterpostoperative best-corrected visual acuity at postoperative months 1 (p < 0.001) and 3 (p = 0.004). While senior consultants produced the best postoperative best-corrected visual acuity outcomes, the results achieved by residents were comparable to those reported in prior resident-only studies. For surgeries performed by residents, the overall rate of posterior capsule rupture was 3.1% with a 0.0% rate of vitreous loss.Conclusions: The continued close guidance and training of ophthalmology residents in a restructured Asian training hospital will ensure that complication rates remain low while maintaining postoperative outcomes at safe levels.

Chen W, Li X, Rahman MRT, Al-Hajj NQM, Dey KC, Raqib SM. 2014. Emulsification properties of soy bean protein. Nusantara Bioscience 6: 196-202. Emulsion stability and emulsifying ability are two important factors in food industry. Soy protein has the great of interest because of its amphilic structure. β-Conglycinnin and glycinin are main components in soy protein which can be used as emulsifiers in food processing. However, due to its size and molecular weight, the emulsifying ability of soy protein is limited. By chemical, physical and enzymatic modification, the emulsifying ability of soy protein can be improved. The addition of polysaccharides in emulsion is common. The interaction of polysaccharides and proteins are being discussed in this review. In some complex food emulsion, the function of soy protein molecules and emulsifier at the interface need to be investigated in the future study.