3029: Only 72 cases during residency – is that enough?
Graduating with only 72 primary cataract cases during residency can certainly spark anxiety, but surgical volume in training is merely the foundation for a lifetime of growth. You will learn more in your first year or two in practice than you did in the prior decade of medical school, internship, and residency combined—as long as you embrace a continuous, dedicated commitment to learning every single day of your career. Early independent practice naturally forces rapid development, refining your surgical judgment, efficiency, and complication management as you take total ownership of your outcomes. By leveraging surgical video reviews, structured wet labs, and high-yield educational resources, a surgeon with lower initial volume can quickly bridge the experience gap and build supreme confidence in the OR. Watch the video to analyze this resident case and explore how deliberate practice transforms early training numbers into lifelong surgical mastery. How many primary phaco cases did you perform in training, and what advice would you give to young surgeons starting practice with modest volume? Please comment your thoughts below.
