Cornea transplant at Kaiser ..which doc to choose?

I have a friend scheduled to have a cornea transplant in March. He has
a choice of two surgeons...one young and well trained but has only
done 35 since residency. The other older who has done hundreds but is
located further away. Does anyone have a recommendation on how to pick
a surgeon? Anyone have experience at Kaiser?
Neal

 

How does a surgeon become more experienced if nobody goes to him in
his early days... just wondering how it works out there?

Ann

 

Actually, a fellowship is where sub-specialty training is gained, to begin
with. This is not usually obtained during one's residency training, which is
more general. Thus, a corneal surgeon does not get 35 cases during his
residency. He may get 35 cases during his fellowship training, (or not,
depending on the training circumstances). Or he may be talking about a total
of cases during his fellowship plus any he has done since being in practice.

How does he get more experience? People DO come to him, and he gets
experienced over time. Not all patients look at the number of cases and
decide they want someone more experienced. Starts out hopefully with the
easier, straightforward cases like the ones he did in his fellowship, then
takes on more difficult ones as he gains more experience. Same is true for
the catract surgeon, strabismus surgeon, or the glaucoma surgeon. All of
them have to start somewhere.




On 1/3/04 12:47 PM, in article ,
"Glenn Hagele - Council for Refractive Surgery Quality Assurance
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