Higher cataract volume linked with lower complication rate in study

“Strong evidence” of a decrease in complications with an increase in surgical volume was seen in a study among English cataract surgeons.

In other medical specialties, such as cardiovascular surgery, high case volume has been associated with better health outcomes. But such a relationship has never been established between volume and the outcome of phacoemulsification, noted M. Habib and colleagues at the Sunderland Eye Infirmary and Moorfields Hospital in England.

These researchers reviewed the charts from six consultant surgeons of all patients who underwent phaco between 1996 and 2001. They calculated the total number of procedures performed per surgeon per year and the number in which “significant intraoperative complications” occurred.

When the data for all surgeons were pooled, the complication rate decreased over time, the researchers found. If the data were pooled for all the years and all the surgeons, strong evidence was seen of a link between decreasing complications and increasing number of cases (P < .01).

The study is published in the May issue of British Journal of Ophthalmology.