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