Dr. NIKUNJ TANK

, Dr. SHIVANI DIXIT, Dr. KARAN BHATIA, Dr. (Col) MADHU BHADURIA

Abstract

No one is born with surgical skills, one has to work on them, earn them. In this era of micro-incision surgeries, chopping in phacoemulsification is essential as it decreases the amount of phaco energy used inside the eye during surgery. Even in current femtosecond era, chopping is needed for harder cataracts. Any young surgeon starts learning phaco surgery by performing divide and conquer or stop and chop techniques and wishes to learn direct chop. This video shows author’s own journey as a budding phaco surgeon and learning from his own mistakes. Just as police interrogation involves a technique of good cop-bad cop where one is friendly while the other behaves in a threatening way to get all the information they want, good chops can boost a surgeon’s confidence while bad chops can be demoralizing. The video shows failed attempts in direct chop in the beginning, to imperfect chops and finally chopping like a pro. It aims to inspire the young surgeons to keep learning and never give up