1452: always give the benefit of the doubt

This is one of the most critically important lessons in ophthalmic surgery. You must remember that the result of surgery is a combination of the surgical technique / technologies and the patient’s tissue / anatomy / healing. When you see a patient with iatrogenic damage from surgery performed elsewhere, always give the other surgeon the benefit of the doubt. That surgeon likely has a strong skillset, just like you, and when that procedure was performed the patient’s anatomy likely played a very important role in the development of complications. When you perform surgery for the second eye, be prepared for the same challenges that the first surgeon encountered. It is also important to educate patients that their results from cataract surgery will be a combination of our procedure and their healing response, which cannot always be precisely predicted.

link here