Complications in phacoemulsification

Abstract

William Fishkind Complications in phacoemulsification. Avoidance, recognition and management. 292 pages.Georg Thieme Verlag. Stuttgart, New York, 2002. Isbn 3-13-124681-2Price: €179 Rather than being just another hastily written text on cataract surgery, this book instead represents a most useful resource. Courses and symposia on complications and complicated cases in cataract surgery have always proved extremely popular and are well attended at major meetings. This book fills a gap by providing a resource through which to seek more thorough advice whilst at home. Starting out in cataract surgery is always complicated for new surgeons. As the skills of the surgeon develop, the surgery itself gradually becomes less and less problematic, until complications are seen as very rare occurrences. This book will find potential readers at every juncture along the cataract surgeon's educational line, and it may make passage along that line easier, quicker and much more enjoyable, in that it will help to facilitate either the avoidance or the management of complications. Cataract surgery consists of a series of basic processes: anaesthesia, wound construction, pupillary access, capsulorrhexis, cataract mobilization, phaco techniques and intraocular lens (IOL) implantation. The book is well designed, giving a chapter to each of these processes and thereby making it easy to look up advice on a particular technique or complication. Its content has been sourced from a series of excellent surgeons, known either for their development of particular techniques or for their educational skills and input. The text does not set out to present any particular technique as superior, but, rather, aims to point out pitfalls and to offer advice on how to avoid and master complications, whether they be general or related to particular techniques. It includes individual chapters dedicated to situations where cataract surgery may be considered complicated right from the start, such as in cases involving corneal problems, compromised zonules, white or soft cataracts, cataracts associated with glaucoma and complications relating to the posterior segment. The book closes with four separate chapters, each of which presents thepearls of wisdom of a different surgeon on how to recognize, avoid or master certain situations that may lead to complications. It is not invalid to suggest that the reader should approach the text backwards and use it subsequently as a reference source for particular problems. In order to become a good surgeon, and to remain one, the practitioner needs to pay assiduous attention to detail and to question their own surgical techniques at all times, with the aim of continuously assessing the least good aspects of their surgery and working towards their improvement. This book can help to support an ongoing process of self-assessment by making suggestions applicable to even the most brilliant of cataract surgeons. Furthermore, the book should not simply be read and then abandoned; it should be regarded as a valuable resource in any eye department with educational obligations to cataract surgeons in training.