Surgical Training and Past Statistics

Resident Opportunities

While completing a residency at the University of Kentucky, there are hundreds of opportunities to assist in the operating room and to perform surgery. Our residents exceed the national median on the numbers of surgeries they assist on and perform as chief surgeon.

About the Training

We also have an EyeSi surgical simulator with dedicated simulator and wetlab training during the intern and 1st year of residency; residents are encouraged and able to use the simulator at any point during residency. Upon completion of residency, our residents have gone all over the country and overseas, with about two-thirds going on to complete fellowships. In the last ten years, the University of Kentucky Ophthalmology residents have done fellowships in the subspecialties of: surgical retina, medical retina, cornea, glaucoma, pediatrics, and oculoplastics. Over the past five years, roughly half of our graduates went into academics and the other half private practice. Approximately 70% of graduates during that time joined a practice in the southeast, with the remainder spread across the rest of the US.

Recent Graduates

Resident using equipment during surgical training.

Below is information on recent resident cataract surgeries averages. Data for the most recent year of graduates is not yet available, but both 2021 and 2022 graduates were significantly impacted by COVID related shutdowns and limitations in elective surgeries. Despite these obstacles, all graduates met minimal surgical requirements in all categories and five of seven graduates over the two years have gone directly into comprehensive practice with surgical competence.


	2021 – 2022	2020 - 2021	2019 – 2020	2018 – 2019	2017 – 2018	2016 – 2017
UK Mean	172	130	246	231	224	198
National Mean	197	187	162	210	198	185
ACGME Minimum	86	86	86	86	86	86

And here are our graduating class means for all surgeries:


	Cataract	Laser	Corneal Surgery	Strabismus	Glaucoma	Retina Vitreous	Other Retinal *	Oculoplastics and Orbit	Globe Trauma
2021	172	96	22	19	20	26	153	69	23
2020	130	83.8	16	16.8	9.8	50.5	152	57	11.3
2019	246	84.3	36	31.7	15	47.8	152	62.3	11
2018	232.3	89	26.3	36.7	22	23.7	122.3	84	18.7
2017	227.7	89	23.7	38	13.3	39	102	87	15
2016	200	107.7	32.3	38.7	20.3	40	183.7	101.7	15.7
overall	207.2	89.3	26.9	32.4	16.1	40.2	142.4	78.4	14.3

* Other Retinal is intra-vitreal injections. Our residents stop tracking these after 150 injections, which they meet during PGY2.