This is an anonymously submitted video of a resident performing cataract surgery number 60 and the technique is stop-and-chop. This is a good choice technique for surgeons in training because the primary nuclear separation into two halves occurs with a sculpted groove. Making that central trench is not time-dependent and the resident can try again and again to separate the two halves. Phaco chop is time-sensitive and once the nucleus is being held by the vacuum power of the phaco probe, there is only a small window of a second or two in which to accomplish nucleus division.
This resident surgeon does a good job and the case goes well. There are some specific things that can be improved and we discuss these in detail. Also the surgery is largely shown at 2x speed so that we can learn the most with just a small investment of video time.
click below to learn how this resident can improve the stop-and-chop technique:
