Book Description

"There are many vitreoretinal surgical textbooks around. These resources are certainly useful and have their place, but they tend to be very detailed and occasionally esoteric. If you are a resident interested in retina or an early retina fellow, and if you are anything like I was when I was getting started, what you really want is a "nuts and bolts" primer about retina surgery. You want to know the basics. That is the point of this short book: To give early fellows and residents interested in retina a simple, step-by-step guide to getting started with retina surgery. The primer is organized into short chapters that each center on major retina surgeries. We start with tips for basic vitrectomy and quickly move to basic concepts and tips for the major categories of procedures you will find yourself doing. This short book is not meant to be all-inclusive. As mentioned, there are many good textbooks that cover many of these procedures in painstaking detail. This primer should help you understand retina surgery conceptually and practically, such that you will be ready as a resident or vitreoretinal fellow for your first retina case. The language used in this pocket guide is intentionally informal. It's meant to be easy to understand and have the feel of a senior fellow teaching you the basic how-tos of retina surgery. You'll notice the first-person plural "we" used often throughout this book. I have written the majority of the text in this book, but I use "we" because each of the contributing authors (all of whom are experts in the field of retina surgery) have helped in formulating this book. The authors of this primer carry a combined 93 years of vitreoretinal surgical experience while having trained at institutions including Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the University of Iowa, Wills Eye Hospital, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The result is an easy-to-understand text written in a conversational style that summarizes the wisdom of multiple experts in the field. One other point deserves mentioning at the outset. There are many different ways to approach each of the surgeries described in this pocket guide. Do not read this pocket guide as dogma. Instead, use the text to help you get started with your understanding of retina surgery--as a jumping-off point. We describe our most common approaches to various surgeries, and we try to mention other approaches along the way, but it is simply impossible in a "pocket guide" to cover every approach. Still, the varied training background and experience of each of the authors lends this primer a certain breadth-rather than one author's opinion, we offer the opinions of multiple surgeons who often approach similar scenarios quite differently. It is our hope that this pocket guide makes a meaningful impact on your surgical training"--Provided by publisher.