The challenge of cataract surgery
Planning, preparation and communication are essential, says Cynthia Bradford MD
Aidan Hanratty
Published: Friday, May 18, 2018
Cynthia Bradford MD[/caption]
Ophthalmologists should try to keep routine cases routine through planning, preparation and communication while performing surgery, Cynthia Bradford MD told the Irish College of Ophthalmologists (ICO) Annual Conference in Kilkenny, Ireland
Dr Bradford, Professor of Ophthalmology at the Dean McGee Eye Institute, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma, USA, spoke about The Challenge of Cataract Surgery when she delivered the annual Mooney Lecture at the conference.
She was introduced by ICO President Dr Alison Blake, who gave a history of the Mooney family as well as reaching as far back as the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, which stated that if a physician operated on a man’s eye and cut it out, he would have both his hands cut off.
Dr Bradford drew from her own experience as both surgeon and teacher, addressing every point of cataract surgery from meeting patients and hearing their histories – personal and medical – to follow-up years later.
She also urged doctors to have fun while performing surgery. “Surgery, it’s almost like a game, you just have to keep up with it,” she told EuroTimes. “You’re watching for everything, trying to make every move as good as you can and allow the next step to be successful and you just start having fun doing it.”