Do Africans really need to go overseas for Phaco training? Performance audit of a locally trained phaco surgeon in rural Kenya

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Abstract Purpose: To audit phacoemulsification cataract surgeries performed independently after a short - term training completed in a rural hospital in Kenya, and to benchmark the outcomes against WHO recommendations. Methods: This retrospective case-series study recruited patients who had had phacoemulsification cataract surgery at Sabatia Eye Hospital from January to December 2018. All the surgeries were performed by a single surgeon following a brief training in the same center. Data were collected retrospectively using a detailed questionnaire. Results: Of the one hundred and twenty eyes operated on during this period, one-hundred and sixteen eyes of 86 patients met the inclusion criteria. The mean age was 62 years and the majority of the eyes (83.6%) had vision less than 6/18 preoperatively. Co-morbidities included diabetic retinopathy (3.4%), age-related macular degeneration (2.6%), trauma (1.7%) and glaucoma (0.9%). Surgical complications were not severe enough to affect the final best-corrected visual acuity, unlike the comorbidities that were negatively correlated with visual outcomes (p-value< 0.001). Good outcomes were 81% against a WHO target of 80% for uncorrected visual acuity category, and 96.6% in the best-corrected visual acuity category against a target of 90%. The Royal College of Ophthalmology database of cataract surgery outcomes and the European Registry of Quality Outcomes for cataract and refractive surgery had comparable results. Conclusions: This local training model was based on apprenticeship and skills transfer. It can achieve high-quality visual outcomes meeting WHO recommendations.

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